Peripheral Artery Disease Costs High

People with peripheral artery disease (PAD) have high medical costs, a new study finds. And better treatments are needed, the research suggests. PAD is a narrowing of arteries in the legs. It causes pain during walking. The study kept track of 1,600 people with PAD for 2 years. Nearly 1 out of 3 people had a hospital stay related to PAD. Hospital costs were about $7,000 for a person who had no previous procedures to open up a leg artery. But having these treatments did not keep people out of the hospital. In fact, hospital costs went up. They averaged $11,700 for people who had a previous procedure. The study appeared October 13 in the journal Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes.