Peripheral Artery Disease Treatment: Intervention Types

Peripheral Artery Disease: Types of Intervention Therapy

Peripheral artery disease treatment can include exercise, medication, thrombolytic therapy and angioplasty. See the symptoms, risks and diagnosis.

By Izkey Newsroom

Published August 20, 2021, 4:03 PM WIB 3 min read

The rise in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) cases in Indonesia has also pushed up cases of other degenerative diseases. T2DM falls in the category of diseases that can cause a range of complications, both macrovascular and microvascular.

In microvascular complications, the main target organs are the eyes and kidneys. Meanwhile, the blood vessels of the heart, the blood vessels of the lower limbs and the brain are part of macrovascular complications.

A fairly common result of macrovascular T2DM complications in Indonesia is peripheral artery disease (PAD). The disease usually affects the extremities, meaning the legs.

A Quick Look at Peripheral Artery Disease

Peripheral artery disease (PAD) occurs when the arteries are blocked, particularly the arteries that supply blood to the legs. The blockage is triggered by cholesterol and atheroma, which cause fatty deposits to build up on the artery walls. As a result, the legs lack nutrients and blood supply, so they often hurt when used for walking.

Several factors raise the risk of PAD, such as smoking, age-related atherosclerosis, diabetes mellitus, dyslipidemia and hypertension.

Symptoms can differ from one PAD patient to another. Some people show claudication symptoms: at first they feel mild pain or cramping, which gets worse during activity such as exercise. Others are asymptomatic, meaning they show no symptoms at all even though they already have PAD.

To diagnose peripheral artery disease, doctors usually run several tests, for example duplex ultrasonography (ultrasound), peripheral angiography, the ankle brachial index and CT angiography (CT scan). The ankle brachial index (ABI) test is the most recommended because it costs less, is noninvasive and is reliable.

Types of Peripheral Intervention Therapy

To treat peripheral artery disease, doctors will provide a range of medical measures, one of which is peripheral intervention therapy. These are the possible peripheral intervention therapies a doctor may use:

Physical intervention, or exercise therapy. This therapy runs for about 6 to 12 months and consists of controlled physical exercise.
Pharmacological therapy, which means giving several types of medication, from ticlopidine, cilostazol, aspirin and pentoxifylline to clopidogrel.
Thrombolytic therapy, which injects a special drug that dissolves blood clots. The injection goes into the area of the narrowed blood vessel.
Peripheral intervention with angioplasty, which places a catheter, a thin, soft tube, so the doctor can insert a stent into the blocked area of the blood vessel.

Peripheral intervention therapy is generally performed so that patients do not need surgery, which minimizes risk, cost and trauma.