Cardiovascular risk prevention in peripheral artery disease

Patients with peripheral arterial disease are at greatly elevated risk for stroke and myocardial infarction and are six times more likely to die from cardiovascular causes than those without the disease. The available evidence supports the provision of an antiplatelet agent, a statin, and an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor for cardiovascular protection in these patients. When used together, these approaches are expected to produce a cumulative relative risk reduction of approximately 80%. Given the high baseline risk of this population and the effectiveness of these interventions, a combination of multiple drug therapies, in concert with aggressive lifestyle change and revascularization (where appropriate), can substantially reduce the burden of morbidity and mortality in patients with peripheral arterial disease.