PHILADELPHIA, October 30, 2007 - The American College of Physicians (ACP) will publish "Peripheral Arterial Disease" on November 2. The latest addition to ACP's Key Diseases Series, the book is designed to provide clinicians with the most current information on the diagnosis and treatment of peripheral arterial disease (PAD), a condition that obstructs blood flow to the legs due to a buildup of plaque in the arteries that supply blood to those areas.
PAD affects about 8 million Americans, or 12 to 20 percent of people over age 65, according to the American Heart Association. A recent survey published in the journal Circulation found that most Americans are unfamiliar with PAD, and those at highest risk for the disease - older adults, minorities, and people with less education and income - are the most likely to have little or no knowledge about the condition.
"The number of Americans affected with PAD may quadruple within the next decade as the population continues to age," said co-editor Michael R. Jaff, DO, FACP, assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and director of the Massachusetts General Hospital Vascular Center. "Yet PAD remains one of the most under-diagnosed conditions in internal medicine. Due to the lack of symptoms associated with PAD, many people suffer from this disease in silence."
Co-edited by Emile R. Mohler, MD, FACP, director of vascular medicine at the University of Pennsylvania Health System and associate professor of medicine at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, "Peripheral Arterial Disease" answers commonly asked questions with direct and clinically relevant answers about this debilitating condition.
The book covers the epidemiology of PAD, evaluation techniques and procedures, testing methods, medical/endovascular/surgical treatment options, management of PAD risk factors, current and future therapies for PAD, and when to refer patients for surgery.
An ACP Press title, "Peripheral Arterial Disease" is available through all medical booksellers; online at www.acponline.org/padbook, www.amazon.com, and www.barnesandnoble.com; or by calling ACP Customer Service at 800-523-1546, ext. 2600, or 215-351-2600.
The ACP Key Diseases Series provides the crucial information physicians need to understand and treat the most commonly encountered illnesses found in the practice of internal medicine. Concise descriptions of symptoms and treatments are given throughout the text. Each chapter answers the most pertinent questions with direct, clinically-relevant answers, and ends with a brief summary of what was discussed. Key annotated references, tables, and figures reinforce important information and serve as tools for further analysis. Other new titles in the ACP Key Diseases Series are "HIV and "Stroke."
The American College of Physicians (www.acponline.org) is the largest medical specialty organization and the second-largest physician group in the United States. ACP members include 124,000 internal medicine physicians (internists), related subspecialists, and medical students. Internists specialize in the prevention, detection, and treatment of illness in adults.