Peripheral Artery Disease

Seldom, the decreased flow of the blood in the case of peripheral artery disease provoke appearance of sores that cannot be healed, gangrene, ulcers and various injuries of the extremities. The area of extremity do not receive enough blood and become prone to the development of infection and in some extreme occasions, may be very useful or even necessary the usage of amputation of injured extremity.

Peripheral venous disease

The peripheral venous disease provokes damage of the valves situated inside the veins. The result of damage is dysfunction of valves and the valves lose ability to close completely. This can allow the blood to flow in two directions. So in the relaxed state of the muscles, the valves in the damaged veins will not be able to block the blood from flowing in the wrong direction. And by-turn it can cause pooling of the blood or swelling inside the veins. From the outside one can observe it as ropes under the skin. So in the result of it blood flows slowly, and may stick to the walls of the vessels and create blood clots, which is present danger for the heart and brain, because they prone to unpin and move through the veins. Moving through narrower vessels it can clog it and result serious heart disease.

Contrast signs and symptoms of peripheral artery disease with peripheral venous disease?

First sign of peripheral artery disease is intermittent claudication that is localized in the arm or in leg can occur the cramping in the legs during the exercise and can subside with rest. The level of pain and location can vary depending upon the place and scope of blockage of the injured artery. The most usually the intermittent claudication situated in the calf muscle of the leg. During the walking can lead to the leg pain. And with the increasing of the stress and duration of the walk the pain steadily increases too.  So the pain decreases only after the rest. Because of the intolerable pain, patient has to stop his walking.  Intermittent claudication can hurt one or both legs.

There is one more serious and critical sign of the disease the rest pain. It can occur in the case of critical occlusion of the artery, when it is not enough blood supply for the lower extremity, even without stress, and it can present serious form of the disease. The pain usually occurs in the feet, and is very severe, the pain can occur at night when the patient lies in a supine position.

Contrasting the signs of peripheral artery disease and peripheral venous disease, we can state similar signs for both of them:

• Numbness of the extremities
• Weakness and atrophy that is localized in the calf area.
• A feeling of coldness in the feet or legs.

How you teach a patient with peripheral artery disease about caring for his disease?

First and main cause and treatment of this disease is the lifestyle. So, sedentary style of life can be reason of the peripheral artery disease. To treat such disease patient has to change the style of life. Movement is a pledge of healthy and happy life. We can teach a patient to take recommended medicines and walk, run and move. It will help to ruin the clogs inside vessels and in the result to cure completely from disease.