Background: Despite mounting evidence of increased cardiovascular events in patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), the overall incidence of cardiovascular events in PAD patients has not been fully clarified in Japan. The prospective Surveillance of cardiovascular Events in Antiplatelet-treated arterioSclerosis Obliterans patients in JapaN (SEASON) is a prospective observational multicenter study and here we report the baseline clinical characteristics, including atherosclerosis risk factor prevalence, in PAD patients treated with antiplatelet agents.
Methods and results: The SEASON registry enrolled 11,375 patients in 1,745 institutions and the data for 10,322 patients were analyzed. At baseline, the average age was 73.8±9.9 years, 60.0% were male and 83.9% were in Fontaine stage I or II. They had arteriosclerosis risk factors, such as current smoking (16.2%), hypertension (61.5%), diabetes mellitus (38.3%) and dyslipidemia (38.8%). There were complications including heart disease (29.7%), cerebrovascular disease (17.1%) and chronic kidney disease (14.3%). A subpopulation analysis revealed that the proportions of patients with risk factors were high in patients with lower ankle-brachial pressure index value.
Conclusions: The baseline characteristics of the SEASON population demonstrate that real-world PAD patients have cardiovascular risk factors and comorbidities next to definite PAD patients. Further analysis of this database will contribute to understanding the real-world situation of PAD patients receiving antiplatelet therapy in Japan. (Circ J 2016; 80: 712-721).