Peripheral Vascular Disease Flashcards
What are common areas of stenosis for PAD?
Aortoiliac, superficial femoral, tibial
Is it more common for PAD to present in both legs or only one?
More have both. But 40% of patients have in only one.
Think of ____ as _____ of the legs. You get leg pain on exertion that resolves with rest.
PAD, angina
Are the risk factors for PAD the same as atherosclerosis?
Yes
If you have PAD, are you more at risk for CV death?
Yes, about 6x increase risk
What are the symptoms of PAD?
Intermittent Claudication (limp)
Cramp, calf fatigue with exercise, resolves with rest.
Blood flow normal at rest, limited with exercise
No symptoms at rest, onset only with exercise.
If the disease progresses, patients can get–
Ischemic rest pain/ischemic ulcers (critical leg ischemia)
Pain in the distal foot or heel, worsened by leg elevation and improved by dependency.
Distal, painful ulcers on toes or heel.
Blood flow limited at rest and exercise.
Symptoms at rest and with exercise.
True or False: PAD is more from chronic occlusion than from plaque rupture
True
What are signs of PAD? (4 signs)
- Decreased or absent pulses
- Bruits (abdominal, femoral)
- Muscle atrophy
- In severe PAD (critical leg ischemia), pallor of feet with elevation and dependent rubor
Where do you palpate for posterior tibial artery?
behind medial malleolus
Where do you palpate for dorsalis pedis?
On top of the foot
What are the factors that affect arterial hemodynamics? (4 factors)
- Perfusion pressure
- Blood viscosity
- Arterial stenosis (radius and length. radius most important)
- Flow velocity (hemodynamic severity increases at higher flow velocities)
True or False: For flow velocity, the higher the velocity, the less narrowing it takes to cause a decrease in pressure and flow across a stenosis.
True
Even with laminar flow, when blood pressure increases, you get more _____ stress.
Shear stress
What does shear stress trigger in endothelial cells?
Dilation. from production of NO.
Collateral vessels may develop at sections of _____.
Stenosis
Do collateral vessels help much for bringing blood across stenotic lengths of vessel?
Not much. They are high resistance
What does endothelium distal to stenosis do?
Vasoconstrict, because of the turbulent flow and dropped pressure across stenosis.
What is Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI)?
Blood pressure measurement in the ankle right above the malleoli. Doppler probe detects the systolic blood pressure. You take the ratio between the systolic blood pressure in the ankle and the systolic blood pressure in the arm. In a healthy person, the systolic blood pressure should be about the same around your body. In a healthy person, the ankle is actually higher pressure than at the brachial artery.
Ratio less than 0.90 is considered abnormal
For the ABI, under what ratio is a positive finding for PAD?
0.90
For ABI, does a normal patient has a stronger systolic pressure at the brachial artery or posterior tibial?
Posterior tibial
What are implications for therapy in PAD? (name 3)
- Prevent CV events (MI, stroke, vascular death)
- Improve limb symptoms, exercise performance, and QOL
- Heal ulcers and prevent limb loss
What are treatments for PAD? (name 3)
- Surgery or angioplasty improves hemodynamics
- Exercise training improves muscle metabolism
- Drugs (cilostazol) have multiple mechanisms
What are aneurysms?
Pathological expansion of all 3 arterial layers
What is the normal aorta size in an adult? (at root, mid descending, and infra-renal)
3 cm at root
2.5 cm mid descending thoracic aorta
2 cm at the infra-renal aorta
What is the size for Abdominal Aorta Aneurysm?
> or = 3.0 cm or 50% increase in size relative to proximal normal segment
When you open up an aneurysm, what do you see?
A lot of atherosclerosis and thrombosis
What are the mechanisms of aneurysm formation? (name 4 and some physiological factors that cause them)
- Weakened aortic wall (decreased elastin and collagen)
- Inflammation (B and T lymphocytes, macrophages, cytokines, autoantigens)
- Proteolytic enzymes (Increased MMP, uPa, tPa. Decreased TIMP)
- Biomechanics stress (elastin disruption, turbulent blood flow, mural thrombus)
What is the incidence of AAA?
40-50 per 100,000 men and 7-12 per 100,000 women