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In the early stages of your peripheral arterial disease, you may not know there is anything wrong. But as your disease gets worse, you'll probably get some discomfort and pain in your legs.

If you have peripheral arterial disease you may get some of these symptoms:

• An aching or cramping pain in your calf, thigh, foot or buttock when you exercise (doctors call this intermittent claudication)
• Pain in your calf, thigh, foot or buttock even when you're sitting (this usually happens in people with very bad peripheral arterial disease who also get numbness and tingling)
• Cuts, bruises or ulcers on the skin of your legs or your feet that don't heal properly or heal very slowly
• Violet to black discoloration of your toes or other areas of your foot.

These symptoms can happen with other diseases too. So you should go to your doctor if you have any of these symptoms to get them checked out.

Your doctor may ask you some or all of the following questions to find out if you have peripheral arterial disease.^{1 2}

• Where do you get this pain?
• Do you get pain when you walk?
• Does the pain ever start when you are standing still or sitting?
• Do you get pain if you walk uphill or if you're in a hurry?
• Do you get pain if you walk normally on level ground?
• What happens if you stand still?

Your doctor will also examine you by:³

• Taking your blood pressure in both your arms
• Checking your pulse at different places in your legs to see how well the blood is going through the arteries in your legs, and at other places such as your wrist and neck
• Looking for unhealed cuts and bruising on your legs and feet.

If your doctor isn't sure whether you have peripheral arterial disease, you may be referred to a specialist for more tests.

You may have some or all of the following tests:^{2 3 4}

• Exercise tests to see how far you can walk before your leg hurts
• Blood pressure measurements in your arms and legs
• Blood tests
• An ultrasound scan to see how well blood is flowing through the arteries to your legs
• Angiography (a type of X-ray that's done to find out if there is a blockage in one of your arteries)
• Tests on arteries to your heart and other organs to check for damage.

This information is for educational use only, and is not a substitute for prompt professional medical advice. Readers should always consult a physician or other professional for advice and treatment. ©BMJ Publishing Group Limited 2008. All rights reserved.