[What do have arterial and venous disease in common?]

Venous and arterial disease probably share a number of common risk factors. From the pathophysiological point of view a similar triggering mechanism was proposed for atherosclerosis and venous disease: subclinical inflammation. Life-threatening thrombotic events may also go through similar pathways in both entities and the culprit is probably dysfunctional endothelial cell in the vessel wall. In available clinical and population based studies, however, unequivocal data are presented regarding association between arterial and venous diseases and their risk factors. In our studies, we found a higher prevalence of lower ankle brachial index in women with chronic venous disease of the lower extremities At the same time, nevertheless we found no strong evidence of a direct link between preclinical atherosclerosis and the occurrence of venous thrombosis in patients with thrombophilias; in the latter group, however, we found a link between hypertension and thromboembolic events. Arterial and venous disease may thus be favorably managed by already well-established and available tools used in prevention of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. Evidence of a possible impact of pharmacotherapy on both arterial and venous disease stems from a large clinical study in which treatment with hypolipemic drug, rosuvastatin, significantly decreased not only incidence of cardiovascular events but also of venous thromboembolic events. Another promising drug for the treatment of both arterial and venous disease could be glycosaminoglycan sulodexide.