What is Vascular Disease?
Vascular disease is a medical condition that impacts your circulatory system. When your heart beats it pumps blood through your body through arteries and veins. The arteries carry blood away from the heart and the veins carry blood back to the heart.
What are the different types of vascular disease?
Aortic Aneurysm
Happens when an area of the abdominal aorta or thoracic aorta weakens and bulges causing an aneurysm. Over time, the area can further weaken or rupture.
- Thoracic Aortic Aneurysm (TAA)
- Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm (AAA): AAA is mainly caused by a weak area in the abdominal region of the aorta that fills with blood and causes it to bulge. Over time the area can weaken and rupture leading to massive internal bleeding, in some cases, sudden death.
- Risk factors include: Age (over 60), past or present smoker, family history of AAA, hypertension, high cholesterol, poor leg circulation, heart bypass surgery
- Warning Signs or Symptoms: Pulsing feeling in abdomen, unexplained, severe pain in the lower back, tenderness in chest, nausea, constant feeling of full stomach
Peripheral Artery Disease (PAD)
Happens when plaque builds up inside the blood vessels causing a condition called atherosclerosis. This reduces blood flow to major arteries in the body, which can cause serious health issues. Most commonly, three areas are impacted.
Lower Extremity Disease
This disease affects arteries that supply blood to muscles in the legs, where blood flow is due to plaque build-up. To compensate, the body reroutes blood through smaller arteries but that is a temporary solution as it can only work when a person is at rest. The smaller arteries aren’t able to supply enough blood when a person is active, thus causing leg pain or tiredness. Left untreated, it can lead to changes in skin color, sores or ulcers. Total loss of circulation can lead to gangrene or loss of a limb.
- Risk factors include: smoker (past or present), hypertension, high cholesterol and triglycerides, diabetes, family history, overweight, lack of exercise, stress, age (more than 50)
- Warning Signs or Symptoms: Pain or tiredness in legs, buttock pain, burning or tingling in feet, sores of breaks in skin of legs or feet, aching in the feet or toes when at rest, changes in skin color (bluish, reddish or pale discoloration), decrease in temperature, impotence (inability to get or maintain erection)
Carotid Artery Disease
This disease affects the arteries in the neck that supply blood to the brain causing the arteries that carry blood to the brain to narrow. This can lead to issues such as memory loss, difficulty with language or vision, paralysis, stroke or even death.
- Risk factors include: smoker (past or present), hypertension, high cholesterol and triglycerides, diabetes, family history, overweight, lack of exercise, stress, age (more than 50)
- Warning Signs or Symptoms: weakness or numbness of face or extremities, difficulty in speaking or understanding, trouble with vision, dizziness or trouble walking, headaches
Renal Artery Stenosis
This disease affects the arteries that supply blood to the kidneys. This can lead to high blood pressure and kidney failure. If the kidneys totally fail, dialysis or a kidney transplant is needed to stay alive.
- Risk factors include: smoker (past or present), hypertension, high cholesterol and triglycerides, diabetes, family history, overweight, lack of exercise, stress, age (more than 50)
- Warning signs or symptoms: uncontrolled hypertension, sudden kidney failure or problems with kidney function, congestive heart failure, pulmonary edema (when fluid builds in lungs)
Risk Factors of Vascular Disease
- Someone in my family has/had vascular disease
- Smoker (past or present)
- Over age 50
- Hypertension (high blood pressure)
- High cholesterol
