Table 1.

Summary of Class I PAD treatment guidelines.

Recommendation	Level of evidence
	AHA/ACC 2016	ESC/ESVC 2018	GVG 2019	APPACD 2021
Lipid lowering drugs for all PAD patients	A	A	A	A
Antihypertensive therapy exclusively for hypertensive PAD patients to reduce chance of MI, stroke, heart failure or cardiovascular death	A	B	B	A
Diabetes therapies to maintain	C	C	B	B
Smoking cessation for PAD patients who smoke cigarettes or other forms of tobacco	A	B	A	A
Antiplatelet therapy to reduce risk of MI or stroke	A	C	A	A
Antithrombotic therapy to reduce risk of MI or stroke	A	A	A	A
Exercise therapy to improve claudication symptoms	A	C	N/A	A
Annual influenza shot	C	N/A	N/A	C
Healthy diet	N/A	C	N/A	N/A
Endovascular treatment for claudication	N/A	C	B	B

AHA/ACC, American Heart association and American College of Cardiology; ESC/ESVS, European Society of Vascular Surgery and European Society of Cardiology; GVG, Global Vascular Guidelines; APSAVD, Asia-Pacific Society of Atherosclerosis and Vascular Disease. A, data derived from multiple randomized control trials or meta data; B, data derived from a single randomized clinical trial or large non-randomized clinical trials; C, consensus of expert opinion and/or small studies, retrospective studies and registries; N/A, not applicable.