Frequency of non-vascular accompanying diseases in patients with peripheral arterial disease.
BACKGROUND
Since there are so far no relevant figures on the frequency of non-vascular associated diseases in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), an analysis was carried out to determine how frequently co-morbidity is found in such patients.


METHODS
In the course of a retrospective analysis, 1693 patients (55.4% men, 44.6% women/average 68.6years) with peripheral arterial diseases (PAD) of Fontaine stage II to IV were examined to find out how often cardiopulmonary, gastrointestinal, haematological, endocrinological, neurological, orthopaedic, urological-nephrological, psychiatric diseases and tumours were seen.


RESULTS
Coronary ischaemic heart disease was present in 63.1% of the cases, heart failure existed in 20.7%, hypertension in 57.9%, endocrine and metabolic diseases in 60.4%, gastrointestinal diseases in 14.8%, pulmonary diseases in 14.5%, psychological and behavioural deficiencies in 16.2%, orthopaedic diseases in 21.6%, haematological diseases in 9.0%, urological diseases in 16.9%, chronic renal insufficiency in 7.3% and malignant tumours in 5.8%.


CONCLUSIONS
The frequency of non-vascular comorbidity in patients with PAD necessitates systematic interdisciplinary diagnosis prior to any therapy decision to take into account the patient's associated diseases, life expectancy and current quality of life.
Department of Internal Medicine, Franziskus-Krankenhaus, Berlin, Germany. Prof.Heidrich@web.de
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D000368:Aged; D001157:Arterial Occlusive Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D015897:Comorbidity; D005260:Female; D005767:Gastrointestinal Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005858:Germany / Q000453:epidemiology; D006331:Heart Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D006801:Humans; D008171:Lung Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008659:Metabolic Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000453:epidemiology*; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors