A high risk of increasing deterioration faced by patients with advanced peripheral arterial disease (PAD) can in fact be curbed relatively easily, suggest authors of a study in Austria. Patients with stage IV PAD, and especially those who feel severely restricted by the condition, are at high risk of developing vitamin D deficiency, secondary hyperparathyroidism and, ultimately, osteomalacia due to immobilization and subsequent lack of exposure to sunlight.
These conditions, in turn, lead to further deterioration, report Dr A Fahrleitner and colleagues from the Karl-Franzens University, Graz, and Krankenhaus der Barmherzigen Bruder (SK), Vienna.
However, a simple, inexpensive approach to mitigating the clinical symptoms and generally to improving quality of life for these patients is to monitor their vitamin D metabolism and provide vitamin D replacement therapy, suggest these authors.
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