Correlation of coronary with peripheral arterial stenosis

Although it is known that patients with peripheral arterial disease are at high risk for coronary arterial stenosis, it is not known if, conversely, coronary artery disease correlates with peripheral arterial stenosis. In the Program on Surgical Control of the Hyperlipidemias (POSCH) coronary and aortic-iliac-femoral arteriograms were systematically analyzed. POSCH is a randomised, controlled secondary intervention clinical trial of hyperlipidemic subjects, ages 30–64 years with one myocardial infarction and angiographically demonstrable coronary arterial stenosis. Of the 838 subjects enrolled in the study, 436 had diagnostic visualization of both the coronary and aortic-iliac-femoral systems. The aortic-iliac-femoral arteries were normal in 44% (194436) of the subjects. In contrast, only 9% (37436) of the subjects had less than 50% stenosis of all 3 coronary arteries. However, there was a positive correlation between the severity of the stenosis, if present, in the aortic-iliac-femoral arteries and that in the coronary arteries ( P