PAD的症状

What are the symptoms of peripheral artery disease?

The most common symptom of lower-extremity peripheral artery disease, or PAD, is painful muscle 抽筋 in the hips, thighs or calves when walking, climbing stairs or exercising.

The pain of PAD often goes away when you stop exercising, although this may take a few minutes. Working muscles need more blood flow. Resting muscles can get by with less.

If blood flow is blocked due to plaque buildup, the muscles won’t get enough blood during exercise to meet the needs. The 抽筋 pain (called intermittent claudication) is the muscles’ way of warning the body that it isn’t receiving enough blood during exercise to meet the increased demand.

Many people with PAD have no symptoms or mistake their symptoms for something else.

Download our PAD症状检查 (PDF) | 西班牙语(PDF)

Other symptoms of PAD include:

• 腿部疼痛 that doesn't go away when you stop exercising
• 脚或脚趾 伤口 that won't heal or heal very slowly
• 坏疽或坏死组织
• 一个标记 decrease in the temperature of your lower leg or foot compared to the other leg or the rest of your body
• 指甲生长不良 踮起脚尖或 头发的生长 在腿上
• 勃起功能障碍, especially in men with 糖尿病。

View our interactive library to learn more about PAD and leg pain.

What are the stages of PAD?

Health care professionals can use the WIfI classification system to categorize the major risk factors leading to amputation:

Wound – degree of tissue loss (ulcer) and anticipated level of treatment required for healing

Ischemia – reduced blood flow

Foot infection – degree of foot infection

After calculating the WIfI score, your health care professional can assess the stage, estimate the risk of amputation and optimize treatment.

了解腿痛

Many people dismiss leg pain as a normal sign of aging. You may think it's arthritis, sciatica or just "stiffness" from getting older. For an accurate diagnosis, consider the source of your pain. 下肢疼痛 occurs in the muscles, not the joints.

那些有 糖尿病。 might confuse PAD pain with a neuropathy, a common diabetic symptom that's a burning or painful discomfort of the feet or thighs. If you're having any kind of recurring pain, talk to your health care professional and describe the pain as accurately as you can. 如果你有任何 PAD的危险因素, ask your health care professional about PAD even if you aren't having symptoms.