Cardiovascular Prognosis in Patients with Peripheral Artery Disease and Approach to Therapy

Abstract

Peripheral artery disease (PAD), the pathophysiologic narrowing of the arterial blood vessels of the lower limbs due to atherosclerosis, is estimated to affect more than 200 million people worldwide and its prevalence ranges from 0.9 to 31.3% in people aged ≥50 years. It is an established marker of systemic obstructive atherosclerosis, which depicts patients at higher risk of myocardial infarction and stroke, due to the involvement of coronary and cerebral arteries in the atherosclerotic process. Therefore, identifying PAD, particularly in patients with coronary artery disease, is important to assess the cardiovascular risk score and implement specific therapies and prevention strategies. Since PAD emerged as an important clinical cardiovascular predictor, even more than other typical cardiovascular risk factors, an aggressive strategy to identify and treat PAD patients should be pursued by general practitioners, cardiologists, and vascular surgeons; similarly, preventive strategies should be implemented to improve prognosis and outcomes, particularly in patients suffering from both coronary artery disease and PAD. In this review, we describe the pathophysiology, including limb vasoconstriction after coronary angioplasty, the diagnosis of PAD, prognosis according to cardiovascular events, coronary artery disease, and heart failure. Furthermore, a large section of this review is on management, which spans from risk factors’ modification to antithrombotic therapy, and revascularization is provided. Finally, considerations about newer therapeutic options for the “desert foot” are discussed, including gene therapy.

Targeting Mitochondrial Dynamics during Lower-Limb Ischemia Reperfusion in Young and Old Mice: Effect of Mitochondrial Fission Inhibitor-1 (mDivi-1)

“…Growing evidence suggests that skeletal muscle mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress play major roles in the disease manifestation and decline of patients suffering from PAD, because alteration of oxidative phosphorylation capacity hampers energy generation and increases oxidative stress, promoting cell damage and death. Particularly, although indispensable, the reperfusion results in mitochondrial Ca 2+ overload and the early opening of the mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) leads to severe muscle damage [10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”