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1.
Introduction
Occlusive atherothrombotic diseases occur in different vascular territories such as in coronary, carotid and peripheral arteries. The consequent diseases such as coronary heart diseases (CHD), carotid disease (CD) and peripheral artery disease (PAD) may be considered cardiovascular killers. In general, cardiovascular diseases have mostly been investigated for prevalence, frequency, pathophysiology, outcome and prevention, but PAD is not sufficiently considered compared to other diseases (1–3). There are discordant results on PAD epidemiology but they derive from different study populations (hospitalized, general) or from different diagnostic methods (clinical, instrumental, discharge code). However, effective epidemiological data are derived from the use of the ankle-brachial index (ABI) to diagnose PAD (4–7). To the best of our knowledge, the prevalence of PAD in advanced countries ranges from 3 to 10% in individuals aged 40–70 years, and 10–20% in individuals over 70 years of age (8–14) (Table I). The prevalence of PAD is the same in men and women, whereas ABI is higher in women (10.6 vs. 4.3%) (15). Similarly, both diabetics and regular smokers show a higher prevalence of PAD (1,3,10–15). The number of elderly people has tripled during the last 50 years and therefore the number of patients with PAD has increased. Secondly, PAD patients have been diagnosed more frequently in hospital where there is greater awareness about managing them according to guidelines for the secondary prevention of cardiovascular events, improvement in physical performance, clinical symptoms and improvement in the quality of life. Data provided following a global estimation of PAD prevalence show that, 202 million individuals are affected by this occlusive artery disease, but it is very interesting to note an increase of 23.5% in PAD diagnoses from 2000 to 2010 (7). PAD has become a serious medical and social issue. However, PAD is underrecognized although it may easily be diagnosed by using a handle pocket Doppler to measure ABI. PAD is also undertreated because its clinical signals (i.e., intermittent claudication) often do not appear in older individuals or those leading a sedentary lifestyle (16–20).
2.Atherosclerosis and osteoporosis
Osteoporosis and atherosclerosis are two chronic degenerative diseases whose incidence increases with age. At present, mounting evidence indicates a relationship between cardiovascular disease and osteoporosis, regardless of age. These seem to have many common biochemical pathways and...