Peripheral Artery Disease
周邊動脈病
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Peripheral artery disease (PAD) is a disease affecting the arteries outside of the brain and heart. For people with this condition, the arteries bringing blood to the legs are most affected. Those at risk for PAD are individuals who have ever smoked or are currently smoking, people with diabetes, and those that have heart disease, high cholesterol, and/or high blood pressure.
Patients with PAD experience either:
- Wounds on the feet or legs that do not heal or heal very slowly. Sometimes the toes can even turn black, or
- A painful, cramping sensation in their calf muscles, thigh muscles or buttock muscles while exerting themselves (this pain goes away after resting, and is typically not worsened by standing)
If you believe you may have PAD, talk to your primary care provider. There is a test called an Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI) Test that can diagnose patients with PAD. This test compares the blood pressure reaching your arms to the blood pressure reaching your feet. Generally, the blood pressures should be similar, but, for those with PAD, the blood pressure reaching the ankle is lower. Those diagnosed with PAD should be referred to a vascular surgeon, who are experienced in the nonoperative (conservative) and operative management of this condition.
There are low-cost medications that help prevent the progression of PAD. Walking for at least 30 minutes, three times weekly is also recommended. Sometimes, patients require surgery to improve the blood flow in their legs. This is especially true for patients with PAD who have slow-healing or non-healing wounds, as these patients are at highest risk for amputation.
If you are concerned you may have PAD, please talk to your doctor today!
More information can be found here
軼事分享:
周邊動脈病（ＰＡＤ）是一種影響大腦和心臟以外動脈的疾病。有這種病的人對輸送血液到腿部的動脈之影響最嚴重。ＰＡＤ的高風險群體包括曾經吸煙或目前仍在吸煙的人、糖尿病患者、心臟病患者、有高膽固醇和／或高血壓的人。
患有ＰＡＤ的患者可能會經歷以下一種或兩種情況：
- 腳或腿上的傷口不癒合或癒合速度非常慢。有時候腳趾甚至會變黑。或
- 在勞累時小腿肌肉、大腿肌肉或臀部肌肉感到疼痛、抽筋。這種疼痛在休息後會消失，通常不會因站立而加劇。
如果您猜想可能患有ＰＡＤ，請與您的初級保健基礎醫護交談。有一種稱為踝臂指數（ＡＢＩ）測試的檢查可以診斷ＰＡＤ患者。這項測試比較您手臂的血壓和腳的血壓。通常，這兩個血壓應該是相似的，但是，對於ＰＡＤ患者來說，踝部的血壓較低。被診斷為ＰＡＤ的患者應該被推薦給血管外科醫生，他們對這種狀況的非手術（保守）和手術管理方面之經驗豐富。
有低成本的藥物可以幫助防止ＰＡＤ的進展。也會推薦每週至少步行三次，次至少３０分鐘。有時，患者需要手術來改善他們腿部的血流。特別是對於那些有緩慢癒合或不癒合傷口的ＰＡＤ患者來說，這些患者有最高的截肢風險。
如果您擔心可能患有ＰＡＤ，請今天就與您的醫生交談！
可以點擊這連結找更多資訊：https://vascular.org/patients-and-referring-physicians/conditions/peripheral-arterial-disease