Peripheral arterial disease: an underestimated aetiology of exercise intolerance in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease patients.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of peripheral arterial disease and its implications for exercise limitation in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients.

Method: One hundred and fifty-one moderate-to-severe COPD patients (forced expiratory volume in 1 s: 37+/-6 SD% predicted) and 73 healthy age-matched control individuals (divided into 31 smokers and 42 nonsmokers) participated in this study. All COPD patients were either exsmokers or current smokers and their tobacco-smoking history was similar to that of healthy smokers.