CLINICAL ASPECTS AMT, vol. 24, no. 4, 2019, p. 31 ACTA MEDICA TRANSILVANICA December;24(4):31-33 DOI: 10.2478/amtsb-2019-0009 Online ISSN 2285-7079 RISK FACTORS IN PERIPHERAL ARTERY DISEASE ASSOCIATED WITH CORONARY ARTERY DISEASE OANA STOIA 1 , IOAN MANIȚIU 2 , IOAN BITEA 3 , GABRIELA EMINOVICI 4 , MINODORA TEODORU 5 1,3,4,5 Emergency County Clinical Hospital, Sibiu, 1,2,4,5 “Lucian Blaga” University of Sibiu, 3 Invasive and non-invasive research centre in the field of cardiac and vascular pathology in adults, Sibiu Keywords: risk factors, peripheral artery disease, coronary artery disease Abstract: Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a partial or complete occlusion of one or more arteries leading to a suppression of blood flow and ischemia. In the process of stenosis, numerous processes are described, among which, the most common being atherosclerosis, affecting the arteries of the inferior and coronary limbs. In the 60 patients investigated angio-coronarographically in the Emergency County Clinical Hospital of Sibiu with PAD, the prevalence of high blood pressure (HBP) and smoking was observed, among the risk factors, and 73.3% had one or more coronary lesions. The association of diabetes mellitus (DM) with PAD has shown an increase in the number of coronary lesions. There was also a strong positive correlation between the presence of left anterior descending artery (LAD) injuries and the stage of PAD regardless of other risk factors. 1 Corresponding author: Oana Stoia, B-dul Corneliu Coposu 2-4, Sibiu, România, E-mail: motoc.oana@yahoo.com., Phone: +40745 974335 Article received on 07.11.2019 and accepted for publication on 02.12.2019 INTRODUCTION Peripheral artery disease of the lower limbs is a pathology that refers to the acute or chronic obstruction of the arteries existing in the lower limbs. There are several causes of this obstruction, for example, embolism, thrombosis, vasculitis, diseases that generally affect the arteries, although the most common is atherosclerotic.(1) Atherosclerotic impairment of the arteries of the lower limbs is correlated with the increased risk of development of major cardiovascular events, by depositing atheroma plaques at the level of the coronary and cerebral arteries.(2) Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease encompasses a large number of related pathologies, including ischemic heart disease and peripheral arterial disease. This group of diseases is the main cause of global morbidity and mortality, and its prevalence is increasing.(3) AIM The present paper aims at observing the predominance of risk factors for peripheral with coronary artery disease. MATERIALS AND METHODS For the study, 126 patients were admitted who were diagnosed with peripheral arterial disease in the Cardiology Clinic of the Sibiu Emergency County Clinical Hospital, between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2018, for pain in the lower limbs, progressively accentuated, who did not require emergency intervention or surgical treatment and in whom the ankle-brachial index value is below 0.9. Of these, 60 patients were selected for angio-coronarography, according to the recommendations of the European Society of Cardiology guide, in the Invasive and Non-invasive Research Centre in the field of Cardiac and Vascular Pathology in adults, Sibiu. The study excluded:  patients who did not have claudication in the lower limbs, excluding neuropathy of any kind, or post-traumatic pain;  patients admitted with phenomena of heart failure or angina pains;  patients without indication of angio-coronarographic exploration. A subjective staging, depending on the walking distance until the appearance of claudication, are those of Leriche Fonatine or Rutherford. They also offer relative prognostic value. Table no. 1. Leriche-Fontaine classification for PAD (4,5) Stage Symptoms I Asymptomatic IIa Claudication at more than 200 m walking distance IIb Claudication occurs in less than 200m walk III Pain in the limbs at rest IV Ischemic lesions appear, such as gangrene, necrosis etc. For data collection and documentation, a prospective analysis of all clinical observation records was used, with the notation of the different characteristics. For the elaboration of a baseline data, the age of the patients, gender, environment of origin, degree of peripheral arterial disease according to Leriche Fontaine classification at the time of admission were noted, known risk factors for atherosclerosis (smoking, high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol levels), and low HDL cholesterol, diabetes). For statistical analysis, Microsoft Excel from Microsoft Office and SPSS 22 were used. Patients were investigated angio-coronarographically and statistical correlations were performed to see if there is any connection between the stage of peripheral arterial disease and the lesions in the coronary arteries. For a significant correlation, the patients were divided into two groups, those with claudication at > 200 m or < 200m, and coronary lesions in the trunk lesion of the left coronary artery, anterior descending