Vascular Disease

Vascular diseases like peripheral artery disease and carotid artery disease can affect how blood moves through your body, which can impact the delivery of important nutrients and oxygen. Whether you're looking for emergency care or prevention, we use the latest vascular and endovascular treatments to help restore healthy blood flow.

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Understanding vascular disease and its impact on your health

At Tufts Medicine, we can detect, diagnose and treat a wide range of vascular conditions, from varicose veins to heart attacks. Your vascular system plays a crucial role in keeping your body healthy by circulating blood, oxygen and nutrients.

Your vascular system is made up of three types of blood vessels, each with an important job:

Arteries: Carry oxygen-rich blood away from the heart to the rest of the body.
Veins: Carry blood back to the heart after delivering oxygen and nutrients.
Capillaries: Connect arteries and veins, allowing the exchange of oxygen, nutrients and waste.

Your arteries create a superhighway for blood flow, stretching roughly 60,000 miles—enough to circle the world more than twice. The same goes for your veins. When your vascular system isn’t working properly, it can lead to serious health issues that affect your overall well-being. By understanding how your vascular system works, you can take steps to keep it healthy and reduce your risk of vascular disease.

Cardiologist Eric Ewald, MD talks to patient in Lowell General Hospital's Heart and Vascular inpatient unit (D4Med).

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Conditions

Vascular disease affects the blood vessels that carry blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout your body. When these vessels become narrowed, blocked or weakened, it can lead to serious health problems. Some conditions develop slowly over time, while others cause sudden, life-threatening emergencies. With the right diagnosis and treatment, we can help restore healthy circulation and reduce your risk of complications.

We diagnose and treat a wide range of vascular conditions, including:

Aortic aneurysm

Aortoiliac occlusive disease (AIOD)

Arterial aneurysm

Arterial dissection

Carotid artery disease

Cerebrovascular disease

Deep vein thrombosis (DVT)

Heart attack

Hemodialysis access

Limb-threatening ischemia

Mesenteric artery disease

Peripheral artery disease

Thoracic outlet syndrome

Varicose veins

Venous insufficiency

Visceral aneurysms

Visceral artery disease

Vascular disease symptoms

When a vascular condition affects your body or causes pain, it can impact your quality of life or even become life-threatening. It's important to get in touch with your doctor if you're experiencing any of these symptoms in your arms, legs, hands or feet:

Abnormal color changes: Skin turning pale, blue, or reddish.
Coolness or coldness: Feeling unusually cold in your limbs, especially when others are warm.
Numbness or tingling: A sensation of pins and needles or loss of feeling.
Pain: Discomfort or aching, especially while walking or resting.
Swelling: Unexplained or persistent swelling in your arms, legs, hands, or feet.
Ulcers or wounds that don’t heal: Sores or cuts that take a long time to heal or won’t heal at all.

If you're noticing any of these symptoms, it's important to see your doctor. Early detection and treatment of vascular issues can help prevent complications and improve your health.

Testing

Vascular disease affects the blood vessels that carry blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout your body. When these blood vessels become narrowed, blocked or weakened, it can lead to serious health problems. Detecting these issues early is important to prevent complications and keep your vascular system healthy.

To find any problems in your blood vessels, your doctor may recommend tests that help us see inside your body. These tests can check for blockages, poor blood flow or other vascular problems. Here are some of the cardiovascular imaging tests commonly used to diagnose vascular disease:

We also use more advanced tests to learn even more about your vascular system, such as:

Catheter-based digital diagnostic angiography
Intravascular ultrasound
Invasive diagnostic angiography
Noninvasive vascular hemodynamics and duplex ultrasound imaging

These tests help us find problems early to treat them quickly and restore healthy blood flow.

Treatments

To restore healthy blood flow to your vascular system, we collaborate with specialists in cardiology, vascular surgery, interventional radiology and podiatry.

We specialize in using minimally invasive endovascular surgery techniques whenever possible. These techniques use catheters and small incisions to treat the arteries and blood vessels of the affected area. To get your vascular health back on track, we may suggest treatments like laser ablation and transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR).

Together, we'll create a treatment plan that helps you feel better and improves your quality of life.

Angioplasty

Angioplasty, or percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), is one of the go-to treatments for a heart attack. An angioplasty can be an emergency treatment (primary) or a way to prevent a heart attack (non-emergent).

Primary angioplasty

Even just a few moments can be the difference between life or death during a heart attack. Our surgeons are ready to perform a primary angioplasty when you come through our doors. Here’s how it works:

Thin, flexible tubes called catheters are inserted into a blood vessel and guided toward the heart.
Dye is then injected through the catheters to help locate the exact location of the blockage.
A tiny balloon at the end of the catheter is then inflated to widen the blocked artery, allowing blood to flow more freely.
In some cases, we use a tiny metal tube called a stent to keep the artery unblocked.

Non-emergent angioplasty

A non-emergent angioplasty is very similar to a primary angioplasty, but the key difference between them is when they’re performed:

A non-emergent angioplasty is performed before a heart attack even happens.
A primary angioplasty is performed immediately following a heart attack.

This is a preventive procedure that your care team may recommend to lower your risk of heart attack or other vascular diseases.

Minimally invasive vascular surgery

Whenever possible, our surgeons will choose minimally invasive procedures to help heal your vascular system. What sets minimally invasive surgeries apart from more invasive, open surgeries?

A lower risk of infection and complications
Quicker recovery times
Less blood loss

Laser ablation

A laser ablation is a minimally invasive technique where we use a catheter that delivers controlled heat energy to treat abnormal veins. During the procedure, the catheter is placed into the vein through an incision roughly the size of a paperclip. The laser heat helps eliminate the diseased part of the vein while protecting healthy tissue.

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR)

Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is a smart treatment option for people over age 70 living with aortic stenosis.

During TAVR, a prosthetic valve is delivered to the heart via a catheter. We carefully position the prosthetic valve in your heart and expand it. As the new valve expands, it pushes your diseased valve out of the way and takes over the job of regulating blood flow.