Causes of late mortality in patients with disabling intermittent claudication

The long-term prognosis of patients suffering from intermittent ischemic cl audication is reportedly worse than that of the normal population. The outc ome of patients with ischemic claudication admitted to hospital was reviewe d retrospectively to identify the causes of late death. The cumulative surv ival rates for patients with claudication were 94.6% at 1 year, 79.4% at 3 years, 67.3% at 5 years and 37.4% at 10 years. The 3 major causes of death, that is, ischemic heart disease, malignancy, and cerebrovascular accident, were equally common. The younger patients tended to die of ischemic heart disease, whereas the older patients died of cerebrovascular accidents. Mali gnancies caused a similar number of late deaths in all age groups. These re sults suggest that specific care should be given to patients with intermitt ent claudication based on the age-related causes of death.