title: The fate of patients with intermittent claudication in the 21st century revisited - results from the CAVASIC Study.
abstract: Patients with intermittent claudication carry a high risk for cardiovascular complications. The TransAtlantic Inter-Society Consensus (TASC) Group estimated a five-year overall mortality of 30% for these patients, the majority dying from cardiovascular causes. We investigated whether this evaluation is still applicable in nowadays patients. We therefore prospectively followed 255 male patients with intermittent claudication from the CAVASIC Study during 7 years for overall mortality, vascular morbidity and mortality and local PAD outcomes. Overall mortality reached 16.1% (n = 41). Most patients died from cancer (n = 20). Half of patients (n = 22; 8.6%) died within the first five years. Incident cardiovascular events were observed among 70 patients (27.5%), 54 (21.2%) during the first five years. Vascular mortality was low with 5.1% (n = 13) for the entire and 3.1% for the first five years of follow-up. Prevalent coronary artery disease did not increase the risk to die from all or vascular causes. PAD symptoms remained stable or improved in the majority of patients (67%). In summary, compared to TASC, the proportion of cardiovascular events did not markedly decrease over the last two decades. Vascular mortality, however, was low among our population. This indicates that nowadays patients more often survive cardiovascular events and a major number dies from cancer.
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.|Department of Vascular Surgery, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Rantner
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Kollerits
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Johannes
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Pohlhammer
authors.affiliation: 3rd Medical Department of Metabolic Diseases and Nephrology, Hietzing Hospital, Vienna, Austria.|King's College London, Diabetes Research Group, London, United Kingdom.
authors.forename: Marietta
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Stadler
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Claudia
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Lamina
authors.affiliation: 3rd Medical Department of Metabolic Diseases and Nephrology, Hietzing Hospital, Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: Slobodan
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Peric
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Angiology, HELIOS Klinikum Berlin-Buch, Berlin, Germany.
authors.forename: Peter
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Klein-Weigel
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.|Clinic for Surgery, Bezirkskrankenhaus Schwaz, Schwaz, Austria.
authors.forename: Hannes
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mühlthaler
authors.affiliation: Department of Vascular Surgery, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Gustav
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Fraedrich
authors.affiliation: Division of Genetic Epidemiology, Department of Medical Genetics, Molecular and Clinical Pharmacology, Medical University of Innsbruck, Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: Florian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Kronenberg
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D003324:Coronary Artery Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007383:Intermittent Claudication / Q000150:complications / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D058729:Peripheral Arterial Disease / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality* / Q000503:physiopathology; D012307:Risk Factors; D013997:Time Factors