ACCESSING HEALTH EQUITY
Preventing PAD
IRs can play key role in reducing limb amputations By Melanie Padgett Powers
(CLI), patients are faced with possible amputation, increased heart problems and a shorter lifespan.
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Currently, 8–10 million people in the United States—mostly adults 65 and older—have PAD, resulting in approximately 150,000 leg amputations every year.
And yet few Americans are aware of PAD, let alone ways to prevent and treat it before it reaches the CLI stage. A lack of public and healthcare provider awareness, access to care, and knowledge about potential interventional radiology treatments can contribute
hen peripheral arterial disease (PAD) reaches its worst stage of critical limb ischemia
to late diagnoses and unnecessary amputations, severely hindering patient quality of life, experts say.
Furthermore, PAD numbers are expected to skyrocket as the U.S. population ages, with an estimated 19 million people having PAD by 2050, according to the American Heart Association (AHA). There are also significant disparities, with higher rates of PAD in rural, Black and Native American communities and among those with low socioeconomic status. Hispanic men and women have similar disease rates as non-Hispanic white people but present at later stages.
One of the challenges is that PAD doesn’t always gain the same attention
in the medical community as a condition that is as life-threatening as a stroke or heart attack, said SIR President Parag J. Patel, MD, MS, FSIR.
Dr. Patel also pointed out that in addition to the aging population, more Americans suffer from chronic medical diseases that increase PAD risk such as chronic kidney disease, diabetes and obesity.
“Kidney failure and diabetes have their own effects on worsening peripheral vascular disease. So, patients who have lived long with those chronic diseases tend to have these types of problems in their blood vessels,” he said. “We’re just seeing a growing number of patients.”
In response, 25 organizations, including SIR, came together to develop a PAD National Action Plan, which was announced in 2022. The plan aims to decrease the spread of PAD and raise public awareness.
Public awareness and professional education go hand in hand: Sometimes neither patients nor healthcare professionals are aware that a patient’s symptoms are pointing to PAD, leading to missed or delayed screening and diagnosis.
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