Risk factor profile, management and prognosis of patients with peripheral arterial disease with or without coronary artery disease: results of the prospective German REACH registry cohort

Aims  Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and coronary artery disease (CAD) are manifestations of the same underlying condition, atherothrombosis. We compared patients with PAD only with those having PAD and concomitant documented CAD in terms of characteristics, risk factors, treatment and prognosis. Methods and results  This is a subgroup analysis of the German cohort of the Reduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) Registry. It includes 483 patients with PAD only, and 479 patients with PAD plus CAD. Patients with concomitant cerebrovascular disease were excluded. Symptomatic PAD was defined as intermittent claudication (IC), confirmed by ankle brachial index <0.9, or PAD-related intervention. Patients in the total cohort were predominantly elderly (mean age 67.3 ± 8.9 years), males (72.3%), current or previous smokers (80.18%), and had often abdominal obesity (49.6%). Atherosclerotic risk factors and comorbidities were highly prevalent. Patients with PAD + CAD compared to those with PAD only were significantly more intensively treated with regards to antihrombotic agents (97.1% vs. 88.8%), statins (80.2% vs. 51.6%), or ACE inhibitors/ARB (75.6% vs. 61.1%). After two-year follow-up, no significant differences between subgroups were noted for total mortality (4.6% vs. 5.5%), cardiovascular mortality (3.7% vs. 3.9%), non-fatal myocardial infarction (1.9% vs. 2.7%) but for non-fatal stroke (4.4% vs. 2.0%, P < 0.05). Conclusion  Peripheral arterial disease patients carry a high burden of risk factors and co-morbidities, and are at high risk of death and cardiovascular events. If documented CAD is absent, PAD patients are undertreated. Thus, in PAD patients, secondary cardiovascular prevention with stringent treatment of risk factors to the same extent as in CAD patients is mandatory, in line with current guidelines.