PAOD can lead to limb ischemia . This can result in ischemic pain during exercise that is termed intermittent claudication . Metabolites formed under anaerobic conditions in the muscle can stimulate pain receptors in the muscle. Also associated with the relative ischemia during exercise is muscle weakness and fatigue. Stenotic arterial lesions may or may not alter resting blood flow.
Atherosclerosis is a disease process that occurs over years.
The circulation distal to a stenotic lesion will often undergo collateralization which reduces resistance and thereby maintains normal resting blood flow despite a reduced perfusion pressure. Furthermore, even acute reductions in perfusion pressure lead to a fall in distal vascular resistance and normalization of blood flow by the mechanism of autoregulation .