LISTEN to Dr. Irfan Imami’s podcast that explains Peripheral Artery Disease
On ‘Putting Your Health First,’ Vascular Surgeon Irfan Imami shares the good news and the bad.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to Dr. Irfan Imami’s podcast that explains Peripheral Artery Disease: Should You Be Concerned?
BREVARD COUNTY, FLORIDA – With peripheral artery disease (PAD), the bad news is this: the older you are, the more likely it becomes. The good news? There are treatments. PAD develops with the buildup of fatty plaque in the arteries, cutting off blood supply, usually in the legs.
“As we get older, we all develop some hardening of the arteries from calcium and cholesterol buildup that restricts blood flow to muscles or solid organs and causes problems down the road,” says Health First Vascular Surgeon Irfan Imami, MD.
In fact, as women approach 80, their chances of PAD are 1 in 5 – for men, it’s 1 in 4.
“The majority of the population, yes, develop age-appropriate arterial disease. Everybody gets it,” says Dr. Imami.
What specialists look out for is associated risks, and the greatest of these is tobacco use, followed by diabetes, then high blood pressure and cholesterol.
Family history is also a factor physicians will consider.
Symptoms
PAD may begin as dull pain in the legs during short and mild exercise, such as walking into a supermarket. Then, pain at rest. Severe PAD may result in wounds to the feet or legs that don’t want to heal because there’s inadequate blood flow. Very advanced PAD may cause spontaneous sores.
“That is what we consider limb-threatening ischemia, and we could lose the leg if it goes untreated,” says Dr. Imami.
Fortunately, we have advanced vascular interventions for moderate to severe PAD.
Screenings
The first step to diagnosing PAD is a simple blood pressure comparison between the ankle and the arm.
“If there’s a significant discrepancy in blood flow at the ankle, that’s going to tell us that there’s a problem or blockages.”
A specialist may opt for a CT scan of the blood vessels. Such a study is diagnostic: It will not only locate blockages but show the extent of the disease.
Interventions
Severe PAD sufferers may become candidates for vascular catheterization.
“Similar to how a cardiologist does a heart catheterization, we can go down into the legs and put stents and balloons down into those blood vessels to restore flow. And that typically takes about 30 to 45 minutes to do. It’s all done as an outpatient [procedure].”
If the disease has progressed beyond that intervention, a surgeon may opt for a bypass.
Avoid Pad Risks
Dr. Imami says preventing PAD altogether is difficult because the risk goes up and up with age.
However, the first thing a person concerned with artery disease can do is stop smoking or using tobacco. Next, maintain good blood pressure control and healthy sugar levels.
After these, “the best you can do for me is walk, walk, walk. I tell patients, just walk. It increases collateral circulation around blockages, avoiding the need for potential bypass or intervention.”
“People mistake leg pain for a whole slew of other reasons. A lot of patients say, ‘Listen, I’m just getting older, and it’s just part of the aging process.’ Well, it really doesn’t have to be that way. We can get your quality of life better.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, other health conditions and disorders of arteries can mimic the symptoms of PAD, and not all PAD is due to atherosclerosis.
To make an appointment with Dr. Irfan Imami, visit HF.org/schedule. Visit HF.org/news to find out what’s happening at Health First.
CLICK HERE TO LISTEN to Dr. Irfan Imami’s podcast that explains Peripheral Artery Disease: Should You Be Concerned?
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The post HEALTH FIRST VASCULAR SURGEON IRFAN IMAMI, MD: Artery Disease Gets Likelier With Age, But Treatments Are Promising appeared first on Space Coast Daily.