MONDAY, April 12 (HealthDay News) -- In younger adults, severe non-coronary peripheral arterial disease is diverse and may be more common than previously thought, particularly in women, according to research presented at the Arteriosclerosis, Thrombosis and Vascular Biology 2010 Scientific Sessions, held from April 8 to 10 in San Francisco.
Pavel J. Levy, and colleagues at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, N.C., studied 994 patients (54 percent men, 46 percent women, 85 percent white) aged 55 and younger who were treated at their vascular center between 1998 and 2009. The study excluded patients with end-stage renal disease, renal artery disease, arterial trauma, diabetic foot and those referred for primary amputation.
The researchers found that 640 (64 percent) of patients had premature lower extremity arterial disease, and 88 percent had advanced atherosclerotic changes. They found that 130 patients underwent carotid revascularizations, 87 presented with mesenteric vascular disease, 49 had repair of the abdominal aortic aneurysm, 46 had upper extremity ischemia due to embolism or wrist/palmar arterial occlusion, and 19 had Buerger's disease. They also observed that 19 (19.3 percent) of patients had multi-organ arterial disease. Of 551 patients who were studied prospectively, they observed that 88 (16 percent) had associated chronic diseases, such as malignancies in 43 (7.8 percent), autoimmune disease in 30 (5.4 percent), and chronic infections in 15 (2.7 percent).
"Non-coronary peripheral arterial disease in younger adults is diverse, and probably is more common than expected, especially in women," the authors conclude. "Greater awareness for early clinical manifestations of systemic atherosclerosis is warranted."
Abstract No. P715
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