Every cell in your body needs oxygen and nutrients from blood to survive. If the arteries in your legs become too narrow, not enough blood, oxygen and nutrients get through. The muscle and other cells in your leg may die. If your leg gets badly damaged, it may have to be amputated. But this is doesn't happen to many people.

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Burns P, Gough S, Bradbury AW.
Management of peripheral arterial disease in primary care.
BMJ. 2003; 326: 584-588.

 

 

 

 

 

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Arteries usually become narrow when clumps of fat (called plaques) build up in the wall of the artery. Over time, these plaques make your artery narrower, stiffer and rougher. This is called

 

 

 

 

 

atherosclerosis
Atherosclerosis is also called "hardening of the arteries." It happens when fatty material attaches to the inner wall of the arteries. Over time, cholesterol, fats and other blood components stick to the same area and the artery wall becomes thick and narrow, making it progressively more difficult for blood to flow through the affected vessels.

 

 

 

 

 

atherosclerosis.

If a plaque breaks open, a blood clot forms over the tear. The clot tries to patch up the plaque, just like a scab on your skin if you cut yourself. Doctors call this clot a thrombus. The thrombus may make your artery even narrower, or block it completely.

Sometimes a clot in an artery in another part of your body can break off and reach your leg. It may attach itself to the inside of an artery in your leg. So the artery in your leg becomes narrow or gets blocked. When a clot from another part of your body gets stuck in a leg artery, it's called an embolus.

If the arteries in your legs have become narrow, other important arteries to your heart or your brain may also have become too narrow or blocked. If the arteries to your heart are too narrow, you may get chest pain. To read more, see our information on Angina. If you're a man and arteries in other parts of your body are affected, you may get pain in your back or your buttocks, or you may get erection problems.

You are more likely to get peripheral arterial disease if:

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Murabito JM, D'Agostino RB, Silberschatz H, et al.
Intermittent claudication: a risk profile from the Framingham Heart Study.
Circulation. 1997; 96: 44-49.

 

 

 

 

 

²

 

 

 

 

 

Source:
Hirsch AT, Haskal ZJ, Hetzer NR, et al.
ACC/AHA 2005 Practice Guidelines for the management of patients with peripheral arterial disease
Circulation. 2006; 113: 463-654.

 

 

 

 

 

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