PAD in medical terms stands for Peripheral Artery Disease.
When someone develops peripheral artery disease or PAD, their extremities — usually their legs — don't receive enough blood flow to keep up with demand. This causes symptoms, most of the time leg pain when walking. The medical term for PAD leg pain is called claudication.
In PAD, patients develop atherosclerosis which means the arteries slowly become narrowed or blocked when plaque gradually forms inside the artery walls. Plaque is made of excessive fat, cholesterol and other substances floating through the bloodstream, such as inflammatory cells, proteins and calcium. If the arteries become narrowed or blocked, blood cannot get through to nourish organs and other tissues, causing damage to the tissues and eventually tissue death.
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