What is Vascular Disease?

Vascular disease (vasculopathy) affects the blood vessels that carry oxygen and nutrients throughout your body and remove waste from your tissues. Common vascular problems happen because plaque (made of fat and cholesterol) slows down or blocks blood flow inside your arteries or veins. Lifestyle changes often help, but some people need medication or surgery.

Vascular disease includes any condition that affects your circulatory system, or system of blood vessels. This ranges from diseases of your arteries, veins and lymph vessels to blood disorders that affect circulation. Blood vessels are elastic-like tubes that carry blood to every part of your body. Blood vessels include:
• Arteries that carry blood away from your heart.

• Veins that return blood back to your heart.

• Capillaries, your tiniest blood vessels, which link your small veins and arteries, deliver oxygen and nutrients to your tissues, and take away their waste.

Some vascular diseases affect your arteries, while others occur in your veins. They can also happen only in specific parts of your body. Types of Vascular Diseases include:

• Peripheral artery disease: Like the blood vessels of your heart (coronary arteries), your peripheral arteries (blood vessels outside your heart) also may develop atherosclerosis, the buildup of plaque (fat and cholesterol deposits), inside them. Over time, the buildup narrows the artery. Eventually, the narrowed artery causes less blood to flow, which may lead to ischemia, or inadequate blood flow to your body’s tissue. Types of peripheral arterial disease include:

• Peripheral artery disease: A blockage in your legs. Total loss of circulation can lead to gangrene and loss of a limb.

• Intestinal ischemic syndrome: A blockage in the blood vessels leading to your gastrointestinal system.

• Renal artery disease: A blockage in your renal arteries can cause renal artery disease and kidney failure.

• Popliteal Entrapment Syndrome: A rare vascular disease that affects the legs of some young athletes. The muscle and tendons near the knee compress the popliteal artery, restricting blood flow to the lower leg and possibly damaging the artery.

• Raynaud’s Phenomenon: Consists of spasms of the small arteries of your fingers, and sometimes toes, from exposure to cold or stress.

• Buerger’s Disease: Most commonly affects the small and medium-sized arteries, veins and nerves.

Although the cause is unknown, there is a strong association with tobacco use or exposure. The arteries of your arms and legs become narrowed or blocked, causing lack of blood supply (ischemia) to your fingers, hands, toes and feet. With severe blockages, the tissue may die (gangrene), making it necessary to amputate affected fingers and toes. Superficial vein inflammation and symptoms of Raynaud’s can occur as well.

Carotid artery issues happen in the two main carotid arteries in your neck.
• Carotid artery disease: A blockage or narrowing in the arteries supplying your brain. This can lead to a transient ischemic attack (TIA) or stroke.

• Carotid artery dissection: Begins as a tear in one layer of your artery wall. Blood leaks through this tear and spreads between the wall layers.

• Carotid body tumors: Growths within the nervous tissue around your carotid artery.

• Carotid artery aneurysm: A bulge in your artery wall that weakens the wall and may cause a rupture.

Venous disease occurs in the veins. Veins are flexible, hollow tubes with flaps inside, called valves. When your muscles contract, these one-way valves open, and blood moves through your veins. When your muscles relax, the valves close, keeping blood flowing in one direction through your veins. If the valves inside your veins become damaged, the valves may not close completely. This allows blood to flow in both directions. When your muscles relax, the valves inside the damaged vein(s) will not be able to hold the blood. This can cause pooling of blood or swelling in your veins. The veins bulge and look like ropes under the skin. The blood begins to move more slowly through your veins and may stick to the sides of your vessel walls. Symptoms include heaviness, aching, swelling, throbbing or itching. Blood clots can form.

• Varicose veins: Bulging, swollen, purple, ropy veins, seen just under your skin. Damaged valves within the veins cause this.

• Spider veins: Small red or purple bursts on your knees, calves, or thighs. Swollen capillaries (small blood vessels) cause this.

• Klippel-Trenaunay syndrome (KTS): A rare congenital (present at birth) vascular disorder.

• May-Thurner syndrome (MTS): Your right iliac artery compresses your left iliac vein, which increases the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in your left extremity.

• Thoracic outlet syndrome (TOS): A group of disorders that happen with compression, injury or irritation of the nerves and/or blood vessels (arteries and veins) in your lower neck, armpit and upper chest area.

• Chronic venous insufficiency (CVI): A condition that happens when the venous wall and/or valves in your leg veins are not working effectively, making it difficult for blood to return to your heart from your legs.

Blood clots are formed when clotting factors in your blood make it coagulate or become a solid, jelly-like mass. When a blood clot forms inside a blood vessel (a thrombus), it can come loose and travel through your bloodstream, causing a deep vein thrombosis, pulmonary embolism, heart attack or stroke. Blood clots in your arteries can increase the risk for stroke, heart attack, severe leg pain, difficulty walking or even the loss of a limb.
• Hypercoagulable states or blood clotting disorders: Conditions that put people at increased risk for developing blood clots because they make blood more likely to form blood clots (hypercoagulable) in the arteries and veins. You can inherit these conditions (congenital, occurring at birth) or acquire them. These disorders include high levels of factors in your blood that cause blood to clot (fibrinogen, factor 8, prothrombin) or not enough natural anticoagulant (blood-thinning) proteins (antithrombin, protein C, protein S). The most aggressive disorders include circulating antiphospholipid antibodies, which can cause clots in both arteries and veins.

• Deep vein thrombosis (DVT): A blood clot occurring in a deep vein.

• Pulmonary embolism: A blood clot that breaks loose from a vein and travels to your lungs.

• Axillo-subclavian vein thrombosis, also called Paget-Schroetter Syndrome: Most common vascular condition to affect young, competitive athletes. The condition develops when your collarbone (clavicle), first rib or the surrounding muscle compresses a vein in your armpit (axilla) or in front of your shoulder (the subclavian vein). This increases your risk of blood clots.

• Superficial thrombophlebitis: A blood clot in a vein just under your skin.

Vascular diseases are very common in America, partly because so many people weigh too much and have diabetes. The most common vascular diseases include peripheral artery disease (PAD) and carotid artery disease.

Naples Cardiac and Endovascular Center
(239) 300-0586
www.heartvein.com
1168 Goodlette-Frank Rd N Naples, FL 34102