MedPage Today: Smoking-Related PAD Risk Lingers Even After Quitting

Cigarette smoking is a greater risk factor for peripheral artery disease (PAD) than for coronary heart disease (CHD) and stroke, and that risk persists far longer than for the other atherosclerotic diseases after smoking cessation, researchers reported.

Current smokers in the prospective cohort study with a ≥35 pack-year cigarette history had more than double the adjusted risk for developing PAD compared with the other two diseases (adjusted hazard ratios of 5.56, 2.30, and 1.91 for PAD, CHD, and stroke, respectively), according to Kunihiro Matsushita, MD, PhD, of Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health in Baltimore, and colleagues.

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