How calcium and inflammation are involved in peripheral arterial disease

Investigation of inflammation and calcification in patients with lower limb peripheral arterial disease (PAD) (Mr Mohammed Chowdhury)

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) occurs when blood vessels in the legs narrow, usually due to a build-up of fatty deposits in the blood vessel wall. This restricts blood flow and can eventually lead to gangrene and loss of the limb. Currently, the main way of treating PAD is to insert and expand a small balloon in the narrowed blood vessel to restore blood flow. But while this treatment initially works well, within a year, blood vessel narrowing recurs in about half of people (a process called restenosis). The amounts of calcium within the fatty deposits and the amount of inflammation around them can influence how the re-narrowing of the vessel occurs. A clinical student at the University of Cambridge will study both levels of calcium and inflammation by using advanced imaging techniques to look within the blood vessels of patients with PAD. This will allow them to investigate the role both play in the vessel re-narrowing process and during PAD more generally. If successful, this approach could help clinicians to target therapies to those most at risk of PAD, and provide a way to test new drugs and devices that can treat the condition.