Generally Peripheral Arterial Disease does not show warning symptoms. If patients do not live a healthy life, this disease will easily become more severe. Amputation of legs or hands may be required if the cells or the tissues in those areas die from lack of blood supply.
If the body is compared to a city, the blood vessels can be compared to a system of water pipes providing pure water to the city. When a water pipe in any part of the city becomes blocked, that suburb would certainly be in trouble. Using the same comparison, the organs in the body will be in trouble if the arterial blood vessels cannot efficiently supply the blood to the organs. The disease of the arteries that slows down the supply is called “Peripheral Arterial Disease”. If you ignore this condition, this disease can easily become more severe, leading to Coronary artery disease and heart attacks or cerebral infarction (otherwise known as ischemic stroke). Ignore the condition of your arteries at your own peril!
Our “Vascular Screening” equipment provides you with a simple but efficient check of the condition of your arteries. This check is also surprisingly cheap. The way this is done is to screen the blood vessels in the hands and the legs. This equipment will check the condition of the blood vessels by compression around the arms and the ankles, from right to left side, and measuring perfusion with a high-frequency sound wave. The equipment then generates a report, called the ABI rate-the comparison of the blood pressures between estimated figure in the arms and the ankle in the same side. With the high capacity of this equipment, it gives an accurate result. If the rate is less than 0.9, it shows the real possibility of arterial disease in the legs. A lesser ABI figure shows that the condition is more severe. This equipment is appropriate for over 10 years or is diabetic, has high cholesterol or is disabled and also includes people whose family members have suffered from coronary artery disease or cerebral infarction.
Unfortunately Peripheral Arterial Disease does not necessarily give warning symptoms. Patients suffering from this disease may occasionally feel leg aches while they are walking, which settles after resting. One symptom showing that this disease is becoming more severe is that the patient would feel pain around the hair on the legs diminishes. More severe disease is shown by the skin around the toes becoming pale, then the skin becomes dark as if the patient has a bruise. Finally the skin turns black because the cells die from lack of blood supply. If the hands or legs lack critical blood supply they may even have to be amputated.
