Saving limbs means saving lives from Peripheral Artery Disease

Every September is Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD) Awareness Month, and every year I think about my aunt. She would complain about how sore her legs were all the time, but she just accepted it was part of getting older. Eventually she passed away from PAD, but not before she underwent an amputation, which is all too common and oftentimes, unnecessary.

I sometimes wonder if there was more I could have done for her, more her doctors could have done for her or more she could have done for herself if only she had more information about PAD.

We need this month—and every month for that matter—to raise and increase awareness about what Peripheral Artery Disease is, and educate people about what symptoms to look for, the health risks associated with the disease, who to seek for medical advice, and how it can be treated.

The Cardiovascular Coalition, which is comprised of physicians, care providers, advocates, and manufacturers, has made it their mission to advance patient access to care because they know that death from PAD is preventable with access to care and the right interventional treatment.

According to the coalition, there are approximately 20 million people in America who suffer from PAD, yet only a quarter to half of those people are aware that they have the disease.[i] ?That number is more than ten times higher globally—more than 200 million people around the world have PAD, yet almost half of those are asymptomatic.[ii]

?Not enough people know what PAD is, especially in Native American, Latino and African American communities. African Americans are at much greater risk for the disease with rates twice that of their white counterparts.[iii]

Despite the prevalence of PAD and its impact on a person’s quality of life, it remains underdiagnosed and undertreated.[iv]?While we search for answers to why this is, we can still tackle some of the solutions to the existing problems with patient care.

Education and awareness are the foundation of improving the patient journey for people with PAD. The more that patients, primary care physicians, and specialists can recognize the signs and symptoms—or even proactively look for symptoms in patients with comorbidities like cardiovascular disease or diabetes—the sooner patients can be diagnosed and treated.

There are also therapeutic solutions we are working on for patients who do require balloon angioplasty to clear blocked arteries in their lower limbs; Abbott’s LIFE-BTK trial is investigating the safety and efficacy of the Esprit-BTK drug-eluting resorbable scaffold, specifically designed to treat people with PAD. The clinical trial has intentionally recruited principal investigators who work closely with underserved communities of color to reach the people who are disproportionately affected by PAD.

I may not have been able to prevent my aunt from suffering from PAD and undergoing an amputation, but I have learned from her experience. I have made it part of my mission to help others, educating them about PAD and hopefully preventing someone else’s aunt, or mother or sister from the same fate.

If you recognize the signs and symptoms of PAD in a loved one, I urge you to do the same.

[i] https://cardiovascularcoalition.com/our-patients/

[ii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6113064/

[iii] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6113064/

[iv] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6113064/#R1