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Peripheral arterial disease and and claudication

You may be more familiar with the term "claudication" — which usually refers to pain in your legs during exercise — than you are the term "peripheral arterial disease." Strictly speaking, claudication is a symptom of peripheral arterial disease. However, claudication is often referred to as a disease itself. Peripheral arterial disease is a disorder in which the arteries supplying blood to your limbs — usually your legs — become narrowed or blocked. When this happens, your legs receive less blood than they need to keep up with demand. Claudication may then develop. When the obstruction is mild, you may have such symptoms as pain in your legs only during strenuous exercise. As the disease progresses and arteries become more obstructed, you may have pain or cramping in your legs even at rest.

Causes

Claudication is a symptom of PAD, which is caused by atherosclerosis.

Claudication is discomfort or pain in your legs that happens when you walk and goes away when you rest. You may not always feel pain; instead you may feel a tightness, heaviness, cramping, or weakness in one or both of your legs. Claudication often occurs more quickly if you walk uphill or up a flight of stairs. Over time, you may feel claudication at shorter walking distances, as the degree of artery blockage worsens.

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