Patients who receive endovascular treatment for critical limb ischemia (CLI) have worse outcomes than those who are treated for intermittent claudication (IC), according to a new study.

Dr. Matthew C. Bunte, a cardiologist at Saint Luke's Mid America Heart Institute in Kansas City, Missouri, who wrote an editorial accompanying the study, told Reuters Health, "This analysis is impactful because of its large, geographically diverse, prospective sample of patients with symptomatic peripheral artery disease (PAD)."

"Endovascular treatment for symptomatic (peripheral-artery disease) is safe and can be effective in improving cardiovascular health," he said. "We should not forget the importance of medical treatment in this population for long-term cardiovascular-risk reduction."

Dr. Bunte urged patients, their primary-care doctors, and their vascular specialists to "work together to understand the cardiovascular risk implicated with peripheral-artery disease. Too often, the opportunities of lifestyle modification and medical treatments known to reduce cardiovascular risk are not afforded appropriate attention."

Read the full Medscape article: Endovascular Outcomes Worse With Critical Limb Ischemia vs Intermittent Claudication