Peripheral Artery Disease The New and Old Silent Killer COMMENT

Cardiogenic shock (CS) complicates up to 10% of patients presenting with acute myocardial infarction (AMI), with one-third of those affected not surviving to hospital discharge.1 Given its shared risk factors with coronary artery disease (CAD), peripheral artery disease (PAD) is often seen in patients presenting with AMI.2 Over the past decade, admissions for PAD have increased in the United States, accompanied by persistent high rates of morbidity and mortality.3 Patients presenting with CS from AMI carry the highest risk of mortality when undergoing percutaneous coronary interventions (PCI), but they may also bear the greatest benefit from intervention.4 Those with comorbid PAD may represent a particularly high-risk group, potentially because of higher atherosclerotic burden and vascular access limitations for revascularization. However, no data are available on the outcomes of patients presenting with CS from AMI with comorbid PAD. To this end, in this issue of the Journal of the the morbidity and mortality associated with PAD

Automated summary

Cardiogenic shock is a serious complication in patients with acute myocardial infarction, and patients with concomitant peripheral artery disease may have higher mortality risk. Currently, there is a lack of data on the outcomes of these patients.