Imaging Needs for Development of Novel Therapeutics in PAD

Peripheral arterial disease is now appreciated to be a common complication of systemic atherosclerosis. Reduced blood flow to the legs from PAD causes an array of leg symptoms, and these patients are at high risk for stroke and heart attack. While the clinical problems from PAD result from reduced blood flow to the legs, advances in therapies in this field have been limited. Indeed, the last medication approved for improvement of leg symptoms in PAD was nearly 20 years ago. The future for PAD will require agents being identified and tested via novel imaging techniques that are linked to the pathophysiological progression of PAD and measure significant endpoints that are more accurate, practical, and reproducible. Here a discussion will focus on new imaging techniques that may allow us to measure response to novel therapies and correlate with improvement in clinical outcomes in PAD.