Michael S. Conte, MD, a vascular surgeon and professor and chief of the division of vascular and endovascular surgery and codirector of the Heart and Vascular Center at the University of California, San Francisco. He is a former recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award from the New York Weill Cornell Medical Center Alumni Council, and is on the editorial boards of Vascular and Endovascular Surgery and Vascular Medicine.
How serious is peripheral artery disease (PAD)? We all know that plaque in arteries near the heart can lead to…