Leg artery narrowing may be clue to heart disease (Netherlands)

"A fifth of patients who have narrowing of the leg arteries also have narrowing of the arteries in the heart, but they don't know it, researchers said. In a randomized controlled trial in the Netherlands, 19% of patients with peripheral arterial disease also had coronary artery disease, Rozemarijn Vliegenthart Proenca, MD, PhD, of the University Medical Center Groningen in the Netherlands, said at the Radiological Society of North America meeting. "Peripheral arterial disease patients are known to be at increased risk of mortality due to heart disease, and our results confirm the importance of strict cardiovascular risk factor treatment in these patients," Proenca said. She explained that little is known about silent heart disease in patients with leg artery narrowing. However, new technologies, such as CT angiography, have made it easier to detect the extent of coronary artery disease in a noninvasive manner" - medpage