Modifying the risk of peripheral arterial disease (or PAD)—with
healthy lifestyle changes—remains vital to one's health, note
researchers in a recent issue of the Journal of Vascular and
Interventional Radiology. And while PAD can progress and worsen
over time, there is not enough evidence yet to advocate
minimally invasive treatment in patients who have had a
narrowing or blockage of a leg artery but showing no signs or
symptoms of the disease, say Irish researchers in a
retrospective study of more than 900 individuals. "In the early
stages of PAD, many patients will have no symptoms at all and
often will go undiagnosed," noted Aoife Keeling, an
interventional radiologist at Northwestern Hospital in Chicago,
Ill. She indicated that the prevalence or frequency of
asymptomatic PAD is likely underestimated; however, researchers
studied whether minimally invasive treatments—such as
angioplasty and/or stenting—should be offered to asymptomatic
PAD patients. "While this study is useful in examining the
possibility