Prevalence of coronary artery disease in patients with symptomatic peripheral vascular disease.

BACKGROUND: Prevalence of coronary artery disease has been reported to be quite high in patients with peripheral vascular disease in western literature. Therefore, it is important to study the coronary anatomy in patients with symptomatic peripheral vascular disease. METHODS AND RESULTS: Fifty-three patients presenting with symptoms of peripheral vascular disease underwent peripheral angiography in our institute during the last 2 years. The total number of vessels involved in these patients was 117. Fifteen patients had involvement of the upper limb vessels, 46 patients had involvement of the lower limb vessels and 6 patients had involvement of the carotid/vertebral arteries. Coronary arteriography was done in all the patients. Only 8 (15%) patients were found to have coronary artery disease with involvement of 11 arteries. Eighty-four (72%) peripheral vessels out of the 117 vessels involved showed total occlusion, whereas only 2 (18%) coronary arteries out of 11 vessels involved showed total occlusion. CONCLUSIONS: This study shows that the majority of patients with symptomatic peripheral vascular disease have normal coronaries, the extent of their involvement being low despite severe peripheral vascular disease.