MONDAY, Dec. 29, 2003 (HealthDayNews) -- If you're a smoker, you should worry about your legs, the Society of Interventional Radiology warns.
What with lung cancer, heart attack, stroke and the like, smokers have plenty to worry about, the society acknowledges. But legs -- specifically, blood vessels in legs -- often get ignored.
Just as smoking accelerates the buildup of the fatty deposits in heart and brain arteries that result in heart attacks and strokes, it has the same effect in legs. The result is a condition called peripheral vascular disease (PVD), which can lead to gangrene or amputation.
And it's not only smokers who are at risk, says Dr. Ziv J. Haskal, a professor of radiology and surgery at Columbia University and a spokesman for the Society of Interventional Radiology. Other risk factors for PVD are identical to those for heart attack and stroke -- diabetes, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, obesity and lack of exercise.
"It is an accepted belief that PVD is vastly under-diagnosed," Haskal says. "It affects perhaps 10 million Americans. But it is often mistaken for other conditions, such as arthritis."
The classic symptom of PVD is intermittent claudication, leg pain that occurs when walking or exercising and disappears when the activity stops. But many people with PVD have other symptoms, such as numbness and tingling of the legs and feet, ulcers or sores that don't heal, or coldness of the legs or feet.
Such symptoms should send a person to a radiologist for a simple screening test called an ankle brachial index, which compares blood pressure in the leg with blood pressure in the arm, Haskal says. It is "an excellent diagnostic test," he adds.
"Detecting PVD doesn't mean that you can reverse it," Haskal says. "But its progression can be stopped by a supervised exercise program and medication. Such a program has been shown to improve walking distance."
For severe cases, he says, an interventional radiologist can apply the same techniques used for heart artery blockage -- angioplasty to widen the blood vessel followed by implantation of a stent, a flexible tube, to prevent it from closing.
And, of course, a smoker should stop smoking if possible, Haskal says, because "there are a thousand other reasons why someone should stop smoking."
More information
You can learn about the causes, symptoms and treatment of peripheral vascular disease from the Society of Interventional Radiology or the American Heart Association.
