Peripheral Arterial Disease

Peripheral arterial disease is a circulatory problem in which narrowed arteries reduce blood flow to the limbs.  Many times it is the legs that don’t receive enough blood flow.  Walking can cause leg pain.  A person with significant peripheral arterial disease typically develops pain in the muscles of the calf or thigh after walking a certain distance and beings to limp and then stops walking due to the pain.  The limping is called claudication.  Peripheral artery disease can be treated by stopping smoking, exercising and eating healthy.  Sometimes, a blood thinning medication called Coumadin is prescribed for treatment.  If a person is on Coumadin, then they must be very careful never to take too much.  If a person were cut while on Coumadin, they have a risk of bleeding to death.  Therefore, this would tend to affect the type of jobs they could do.  This is a significant limitation and needs to be presented to the Social Security Administration during a hearing.   When presenting the case to the Social Security Administration, it is important to submit evidence of arteriograms and Doppler studies.