[Advances in research on the genetics of peripheral arterial disease]

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) shows increasing morbidity and mortality. Clinical manifestations of PAD, such as intermittent claudication, rest pain and nonhealing ulcer, contribute to impaired quality of life, and ischemic stroke caused by PAD can be life-threatening. Unfortunately, PAD patients often receive suboptimal treatment, and pathogenesis of the disease is still unclear. Over the past decade, the evolving technology and interdisciplinary collaboration have enabled improvement of diagnosis and treatment for PAD. This review makes a brief summary of the current status and progress in genetics research on PAD, which included candidate gene studies, linkage analyses, genome-wide association studies, and applications and development prospects of epigenetics, mitochondrial DNA and other new technologies.