Peripheral and Coronary Artery Disease: Two Sides of the Same Coin
Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains the greatest cause of morbidity and mortality in the U.S. Upwards of 42 percent of patients with CAD also have peripheral artery disease (PAD).1,2 As PAD affects an estimated 200 million people worldwide, a substantial portion of the population has both conditions.
This article by Nino Mihatov, MD a cardiology fellow at Massachusetts General Hospital, and Eric A. Secemsky, MD, MSc, FACC an interventional cardiologist and director of Vascular Interventions at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC) examines the relationship between PAD and CAD. The importance of assessing asymptomatic PAD patients provides important prognostic clues on the burden of CAD and on subsequent adverse cardiovascular events.