What are the risk factors for developing peripheral arterial disease?

What are the risk factors for developing peripheral arterial disease?

Rose Marie Robertson, MD, FAHA, FACC, FESC (Chief Science Officer and Past President of the Board of American Heart Association) gives expert video advice on: How is peripheral arterial disease tested and diagnosed?; How is peripheral arterial disease treated? and more...

The risk factors for developing peripheral arterial disease are the same as those for developing coronary artery disease. Smoking has a particularly potent effect on increasing the risk of peripheral arterial disease in the blood vessels in the leg, but in fact high blood pressure, high cholesterol levels, diabetes, being overweight or obese, being physically inactive, all of those can affect blood vessels throughout the body increasing the risk of peripheral arterial disease just as they can affect the blood vessels that supply the heart muscle itself and the brain.