Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Symptoms
By Mayo Clinic staffClaudication symptoms include:
- Pain when exercising. You may feel pain in your feet, calves, thighs, hips or buttocks depending on where you might have artery narrowing or damage. Claudication can also occur in your arms.
- Intermittent pain. Your pain may come and go as you do less-strenuous activities.
- Pain when at rest. As your condition progresses, you may feel pain in your legs even when you're sitting or lying down.
- Discolored skin or ulcerations. If your claudication is severe, your toes or fingers may look bluish or feel cold to the touch. You may also develop sores on your lower legs, feet, toes, arms or fingers.
Other possible symptoms include:
- An aching or burning feeling
- Weakness
- In men, possibly impotence
When to see a doctor
Talk to your doctor if you have pain in your legs or arms when you exercise. If left untreated, claudication and peripheral artery disease can reduce the quality of your life. Claudication may limit your ability to participate in social and leisure activities, interfere with work, and make exercise intolerable.
- Mohler ER. Clinical features, diagnosis, and natural history of lower extremity
- peripheral arterial disease. http://www.uptodate.com/home/index.html. Accessed Nov. 3, 2009.
- Arm artery disease. Society for Vascular Surgery. http://www.vascularweb.org/patients/NorthPoint/Arm_Artery_Disease.html. Accessed Nov. 3, 2009.
- PAD — Peripheral arterial disease and claudication. Society for Vascular Surgery. http://www.vascularweb.org/patients/NorthPoint/Claudication.html. Accessed Nov. 3, 2009.
- Peripheral artery disease. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/print/sec07/ch080/ch080f.html. Accessed Nov. 3, 2009.
- Hiatt WR, et al. Pathophysiology of intermittent claudication. In: Creager MA, et al. Vascular Medicine: A Companion to Braunwald's Heart Disease. Philadelphia, Pa.; Saunders Elsevier: 2006. http://www.mdconsult.com/book/player/book.do?method=display&type=bookPage&decorator=header&eid=4-u1.0-B978-0-7216-0284-4..50021-X&uniq=168838833&isbn=978-0-7216-0284-4&sid=911701564#lpState=open&lpTab=contentsTab&content=4-u1.0-B978-0-7216-0284-4..50001-4%3Bfrom%3Dtoc%3Btype%3DbookPage%3Bisbn%3D978-0-7216-0284-4. Accessed Nov. 3, 2009.
- Murphy TP, et al. The CLEVER (Claudication: Exercise vs. endoluminal revascularization study): Rationale and methods. Journal of Vascular Surgery. 2008;47:1356
- Wennberg PW, et al. Diagnosis and management of diseases of the peripheral arteries and veins. In: Fuster V, et al. In: Hurst's The Heart. 12th ed. New York, N.Y.; McGraw-Hill Medical: 2007. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=3076431. Accessed Nov. 3, 2009.
- Michel T. Treatment of myocardial ischemia. In: Brunton LL, et al. Goodman and Gilman's The Pharmacological Basis of Therapeutics. 11th edition. New York, N.Y.; McGraw-Hill Medical: 2006. http://www.accessmedicine.com/content.aspx?aID=944592. Accessed Nov. 3, 2009.
- Gey DC, et al. Management of peripheral arterial disease. American Family Physician. 2004;69:525.
- Grogan M (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Nov. 13, 2009.
- Anderson CA (expert opinion). Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. Nov. 5, 2009.
