What is Peripheral Arterial Disease (PAD)?

So peripheral arterial disease is a hardening of the arteries. This is very common in patients with diabetes. When the arteries harden, they get filled up with hard material like chalk, it's called calcium and that sometimes prevents the blood flow from going from the heart all the way down to the foot and the tips of the toes and that limitation in blood supply can be problematic. Patients with diabetes get a certain pattern of arterial disease or atherosclerosis and it usually comes up from the toes up within the calves and that makes it particularly challenging to assess and also to treat.