What about the epidemiology of peripheral artery disease?
Lower limb peripheral artery disease is characterized by occlusion anywhere from the aortoiliac segment to the pedal arteries.
The prevalence of that disease is equal in both men and postmenopausal women, but symptoms are more prominent in men. Black people have a lower ankle-brachial index than whites.
A recent systematic review found that the global prevalence of this disease was 5.6% in 2015. Atherosclerosis of the lower extremities causes cardiovascular morbidity and mortality that affects more than 230 million persons worldwide.
The prevalence in the United States is 7% which equals 8.5 million adults. This estimate depends predominantly on data collected in the 1990s.
