The progression rate of peripheral arterial disease in patients with intermittent claudication: a systematic review.

Progression of PAD in IC patients is probably underestimated in the literature due to study design issues. Predicting which patients with claudication are likely to deteriorate to critical limb ischaemia is difficult since there is a lack of evidence related to lower limb prognosis. Further research is required to enable early identification of patients at high risk of progressing to critical ischaemia and appropriate early revascularisation to reduce lower limb morbidity.