What is lower limb arteriosclerosis occlusive disease?
The arteries in the human body are like an oil pipeline, arterial blood flows in the arteries every moment, which is like crude oil in the human body. The heart is like an oil pump, which continuously delivers energy to various tissues and organs through different pipelines, and the pipelines leading to the lower limbs mainly include the thoracic aorta, abdominal aorta, iliac artery, femoral artery, N artery and arteries of the lower legs.
Lower extremity atherosclerosis occlusive disease refers to the formation of atherosclerotic plaque on the inner wall of the artery. As the plaque continues to grow, the lumen gradually narrows, the patency of the pipeline is affected, and the blood flow to the lower extremity is reduced, and when the narrowing reaches a certain level or even completely blocked, the blood flow supplying the lower extremity cannot meet the needs, and the symptoms of lower extremity ischemia will appear.
Is lower extremity arteriosclerosis occlusive disease common?
Lower extremity atherosclerosis occlusive disease belongs to the category of vascular surgery, which is a very common disease. In China, with the improvement of people’s living standard, the change of diet structure, and the aging of the population, the number of cases diagnosed with lower extremity atherosclerosis occlusive disease has a tendency to increase year by year. There are currently about 20 million patients in China, and it is estimated that the number will continue to increase by about 600,000 each year. The disease is more common in Europe and the United States, with literature reporting 3-10% of people under the age of 70 and 15-20% of people over the age of 70. The majority of patients with the disease are men, mostly in the older age group.
Third, what causes atherosclerosis of the lower extremities?
The occurrence of lower extremity atherosclerosis-occlusive disease is closely related to lifestyle. The diet structure is not healthy enough, sweet tooth, high saturated fat food such as red meat, excessive salt intake, lack of exercise, overweight is prone to diabetes, hypertension or hyperlipidemia. Diabetes, smoking, hypertension and hyperlipidemia are the four major killers of lower extremity arterial disease. Diabetes can increase the onset of lower extremity atherosclerotic occlusive disease by 3-5 times, and, in patients with combined diabetes, the lesions are often much more severe than in other patients. Smoking is a recognized killer of human health, and smoking can also cause arterial constriction, contribute to arterial narrowing, accelerate the formation of atherosclerosis, aggravate limb ischemia, and is one of the main risk factors for lower extremity atherosclerosis. Long-term hypertension can cause vascular damage and easily form plaque causing stenosis. High blood lipids cause increased blood viscosity, which is also prone to vascular stenosis and leads to lower extremity atherosclerotic occlusive disease.
The environment is also closely related to the occurrence of lower extremity atherosclerotic occlusive disease. Cold and wet environments are prone to develop, so the incidence is higher in the north. Cold weather and vasoconstriction can also lead to aggravation of the original lesion, so patients with lower extremity atherosclerosis often experience worsening symptoms in winter.
Fourth, what are the symptoms of lower extremity atherosclerosis occlusive disease?
The early stage of lower limb atherosclerosis is often characterized by coldness, numbness, and leg muscle spasms, commonly known as “cramps”, and because these early symptoms are not typical, they are easily confused with other diseases, so they are often mistaken for calcium deficiency in the elderly or lumbar spondylosis, resulting in misdiagnosis and mistreatment, which delays their condition. Therefore, patients who have these symptoms should be reminded to go to the vascular surgery department of a regular hospital to confirm the diagnosis through scientific examination means.
If the lesion continues to develop, symptoms of claudication may occur. Doctors call the claudication caused by this disease “intermittent claudication”, characterized by pain in the lower extremities after walking about hundreds to tens of meters, usually manifested as soreness in the calf muscles, but also pain in other parts of the lower extremities, the patient is forced to stop and rest for a period of time to relieve the pain, and can continue to walk, and continue to move pain can The pain can recur with continued activity. As the lesion worsens, the distance over which the pain appears becomes shorter and shorter, from several hundred meters to finally a dozen meters or even a few meters, requiring prompt treatment.
If the symptoms of claudication are not treated and the lesion continues to deteriorate, “resting pain” will appear, and the patient will still have pain in the lower limbs even when not exercising, especially at night when sleeping, making it difficult for the patient to sleep and eat and nervousness. At this stage, the patient must be treated actively, otherwise the disease will enter an advanced stage.
After entering the advanced stage, even a little break in the foot is very difficult to heal, the lower limbs gradually appear necrosis, and eventually can only amputate the necrotic limb, and even life-threatening in serious cases.
Five, leg pain is all have lower limb atherosclerotic occlusive disease?
So, are all patients with claudication and leg pain suffering from lower extremity atherosclerotic occlusive disease? Lumbar spine diseases can cause leg pain and claudication. The pain of lumbar spine disease is radiating pain from the lower back to the buttocks, the back of the thigh, the outer calf up to the foot, and is usually relieved by sitting down or squatting to rest. In addition, osteoporosis and arthritis can manifest as lower limb pain. Therefore, elderly people with limb pain without obvious cause should undergo vascular examination to avoid misdiagnosis.
There is a phenomenon in life that many vascular surgical diseases such as lower limb arteriosclerosis occlusion, varicose veins, phlebitis, deep vein thrombosis are collectively called “vasculitis”, which is also a misconception. In fact, “vasculitis” is one of the vascular surgery diseases, the full name is “thrombo-occlusive vasculitis”, which occurs in young and middle-aged men with a history of smoking. “The symptoms of vasculitis are similar to those of lower extremity atherosclerosis occlusive disease, but they are not the same disease, and the treatment is different, so the vascular surgery department in a regular hospital should make a clear diagnosis and treat the symptoms.
Is lower extremity arteriosclerosis occlusive disease dangerous?
Many people think that lower limb atherosclerosis occlusive disease is “old cold leg”, it is quite common, wear warm, or in small clinics to grab some medicine, prescribe some painkillers, paste a plaster, survive the winter will be fine. However, from the development of the symptoms of lower extremity atherosclerosis occlusive disease can be seen, this disease has a considerable risk, if not timely to the regular hospital, will seriously affect the quality of life, there is a risk of amputation or even death. We understand the danger of this disease through a set of data: the 5-year mortality rate of all patients with lower limb atherosclerosis-occlusive disease is 10-15%, the 5-year mortality rate of patients with “intermittent claudication” is 30%, and the 5-year mortality rate of patients with “resting pain” and ulcer gangrene is as high as 70%. The 5-year mortality rate is as high as 70%, and the 1-year amputation rate of patients with severe disease is 30%.
How do I know I have lower extremity arteriosclerosis occlusive disease?
Lower extremity atherosclerosis is so dangerous that it is important to seek medical attention as soon as possible. However, since the early symptoms of the disease are not typical enough, patients must not self-diagnose and self-medicate, as this will delay the disease on the one hand, and abuse of drugs will also cause harm to the body. Patients should go to a regular hospital with a vascular surgery specialty to confirm the diagnosis through scientific tests. For example, arterial pressure measurement, lower extremity artery ultrasound, CTA, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), etc. These tests can help determine whether there is arterial stenosis or occlusion in the limbs. If necessary, the doctor will also recommend an arteriogram, which injects a contrast agent into the blood vessels that develops under radiation and uses X-rays to accurately show the location and extent of lesions in the blood vessels.
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