Are you in pain while walking, do you feel like your feet are cold, numb or itchy, do you have ulcerations that won’t heal or a family history of aorta aneurism (dilation)? The you need to evaluate your peripheral arterial system (namely those blood vessels that carry the blood to the legs), since there might be a connection between pain or numbness in legs, symptoms and disease.



In medical terms, the progressive narrowing of these vessels bears the name of obliterating peripheral arteriopathy of the lower limbs. It determines a decrease in functional capacity and affects the quality of life, while also leading to amputation of the legs and increasing the risk of death. Why? Because the main cause id arteriosclerosis and this is a (systemic) generalized process, where in most cases narrowing of the lower limb arteries coexists with lesions found in other territories (brain, kidneys, heart).



It is known at the moment that patients with pain or numbness in legs, symptoms and disease diagnosed as peripheral arterial disease have a 50% risk of suffering a heart attack, a 40% higher chance of suffering a stroke or renal failure, compared to the general population. Therefore, the more risk factors there are for arteriosclerosis the higher the risk is for you to develop this disease. Some of these risk factors can be corrected: smoking, arterial hypertension, diabetes, high cholesterol, while other risk factors cannot be corrected: age (patients aged over 50 develop this condition more often), sex (more men than women are patients) as well as heredity.

Rarely, other causes are noted, such as: an exaggerated vascular reactivity that determines arterial spasms, the occlusion of a vessel due to the migration of a blood clot or the existence of arterial dilation (aneurism) located most often in the aorta.

The most often symptom is the pain occurring while walking, which goes away, in the early stages, while pausing, but returns after walking approximately the same distance. This is called intermittent claudication. Its center varies depending on the narrowing of the vessels. Most often it is located in the calf, rarely in the thigh or buttocks, and in this latter case it can also be accompanied by sexual dysfunction. It will occur after smaller and smaller distances of walking until it starts appearing even in pauses, especially at night, at which point the patient tends to keep their leg hanging at the side of the bed.



Claudication, namely the pain caused by the narrowing of the arteries, needs to be distinguished from that produced by other diseases of veins, nerves, joints or muscles. Sometimes it is not typical, and can be felt as a tingling sensation, numbness or cold, which is why you should go to a doctor who, through simple maneuvers such as noticing the aspect of the teguments, feeling pulses, listening to arteries and determining arterial blood pressure in the arms and legs can tell you if you are suffering from arteriopathy or not.