St. Francis Hospital offers free screenings for peripheral vascular disease

INDIANAPOLIS – Poor blood circulation in legs can cause pain when walking and standing and could be a sign of peripheral vascular disease (PVD) – a condition that elevates the risk for heart disease and stroke.

With PVD, the vessels that carry blood to the arms and legs become narrowed or clogged, interfering with the normal flow of blood, sometimes causing pain.
However, a person may experience no serious symptoms but still have PVD.

That’s why St. Francis Hospital & Health Centers if offering free screenings through Legs for Life, Saturday, Aug. 28 at the hospital’s Indianapolis campus, 8111 S. Emerson Ave.

Symptoms of PVD include:

Leg or hip pain when walking but stops when resting
Numbness, tingling or weakness in legs
Burning or aching pain in feet or toes when resting
Sore on leg or foot that won’t heal
Cold legs or feet
Color change in skin of legs or feet
Loss of hair on legs

To qualify for the free screening, participants must be 50 or older, not currently under the care of a cardiologist or vascular surgeon and must not have attended a St. Francis Legs for Life screening during the past five years unless their symptoms have changed.

Registration is required. To make an appointment, call 317-782-4422 or toll-free at 877-888-1777.

To learn more about services at the St. Francis Cardiac Screening Center, go to www.stfrancishospitals.org/Heart/DesktopDefault.aspx?tabid=118.