New clinic opens in southwest Houston to treat peripheral artery disease
HOUSTON - A new clinic opened in Richmond to help patients with a condition called peripheral artery disease.
They hope to help keep patients healthy and reduce the number of foot and leg amputations. Modern Vascular of Houston is in southwest Houston, filling a need to take care of patients with the chronic condition.
"Peripheral artery disease or PAD is a process where there is plaque formation on the walls of the arteries supplying the lower extremities, the legs, and the feet, and that can result in areas of significant narrowing or even complete blockage.
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"The reason why that's significant is because it can result in debilitating pain for patients. It can even progress to the development of arterial ulcerations, even gangrene and limb-threatening infections," explains Dr. Zagum Bhatti, a vascular, and interventional radiologist & Managing Physician of the clinic.
It’s important to get an early diagnosis for this condition or it can lead to catastrophic damage to the blood vessels. Knowing if you’re at higher risk for it can help.
"The one we see most commonly is diabetes, but obesity, smoking, hypertension, or high blood pressure, those are all risk factors as well," explains Dr. Bhatti.
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"Patients typically will have pain with exertion, pain with activity, but sometimes, PAD patients can present atypically and not have the classic symptoms. We urge any patient who, especially if they're diabetic, or have any of those risk factors I mentioned, that they get checked out for PAD," states Dr. Bhatti.
If PAD is advanced, Dr. Bhatti says it is irreversible, but treatable, which is what this clinic will be focusing on.
"Patients with very advanced PAD may need their arteries opened, and that's where we can perform a procedure to open those blocked arteries," says Dr. Bhatti.
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The clinic will also be closely monitoring their patients’ lifestyles, to make sure they’re getting proper exercise and an appropriate diet for their condition.
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