EDITORIAL COMMENT Beraprost for the Treatment of Intermittent Claudication*

Peripheral arterial disease (PAD), diagnosed by decreased ankle-brachial index (ABI), is a major clinical problem, affecting 8% of people 60 to 69 years old and at least 18% of people over age 70 (1). A substantial minority of patients with PAD report intermittent claudication (IC) (2). As the population ages, IC is an increasingly common cause of disability, particularly in elderly women (3). Patients with PAD have about a 30% rate of coronary artery disease (4) and a 44% to 52% rate of cerebrovascular disease (5). Thus, PAD is significant, not only because of disability, but also because patients with PAD have excess risk of myocardial infarction, stroke, and death.