Health Topic

Vascular Diseases

Your vascular system is made up of blood vessels that carry blood to and from the heart. Learn about vascular diseases and their treatments.

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Important: This page is general information, not medical advice. It does not recommend or prescribe any treatment. Always consult your doctor or pharmacist before starting, stopping or changing any medicine.

About Vascular Diseases

Your vascular system is your body's network of blood vessels. It includes your:

  • Arteries, which carry oxygen-rich blood from your heart to your tissues and organs
  • Veins, which carry the blood and waste products back to your heart
  • Capillaries, which are tiny blood vessels that connect your small arteries to your small veins. The walls of the capillaries are thin and leaky, to allow for an exchange of materials between your tissues and blood.

Vascular diseases are conditions which affect your vascular system. They are common and can be serious. Some types include:

  • Aneurysm - a bulge or "ballooning" in the wall of an artery
  • Atherosclerosis - a disease in which plaque builds up inside your arteries. Plaque is made up of fat, cholesterol, calcium, and other substances found in the blood.
  • Blood clots, including deep vein thrombosis and pulmonary embolism
  • Coronary artery disease and carotid artery disease, diseases that involve the narrowing or blockage of an artery. The cause is usually a buildup of plaque.
  • Raynaud phenomenon - a disorder that causes the blood vessels to narrow when you are cold or feeling stressed
  • Stroke - a serious condition that happens when blood flow to your brain stops.
  • Varicose veins - swollen, twisted veins that you can see just under the skin
  • Vasculitis - inflammation of the blood vessels

The causes of vascular diseases depend on the specific disease. These causes include:

  • Genetics
  • Heart diseases such as high cholesterol and high blood pressure
  • Infection
  • Injury
  • Medicines, including hormones

Sometimes the cause is unknown.

The risk factors for vascular diseases can vary, depending on the specific disease. But some of the more common risk factors include:

  • Age - your risk of some diseases goes up as you get older
  • Conditions that can affect the heart and blood vessels, such as diabetes or high cholesterol
  • Family history of vascular or heart diseases
  • Infection or injury that damages your veins
  • Lack of exercise
  • Obesity
  • Pregnancy
  • Sitting or standing still for long periods of time
  • Smoking

The symptoms for each disease are different.

To make a diagnosis, your health care provider will do a physical exam and ask about your symptoms and medical history. You may have imaging tests and/or blood tests.

Which treatment you get depends on which vascular disease you have and how severe it is. Types of treatments for vascular diseases include:

  • Lifestyle changes, such as eating a heart-healthy diet and getting more exercise
  • Medicines, such as blood pressure medicines, blood thinners, cholesterol medicines, and clot-dissolving drugs. In some cases, providers use a catheter to send medicine directly to a blood vessel.
  • Non-surgical procedures, such as angioplasty, stenting, and vein ablation
  • Surgery

There are steps you can take to help prevent vascular diseases:

  • Make healthy lifestyle changes, such as eating a heart-healthy diet and getting more exercise
  • Don't smoke. If you are already a smoker, talk to your health care provider for help in finding the best way for you to quit.
  • Keep your blood pressure and cholesterol in check
  • If you have diabetes, control your blood sugar
  • Try not to sit or stand for up long periods of time. If you do need to sit all day, get up and move around every hour or so. If you are traveling on a long trip, you can also wear compression stockings and regularly stretch your legs.

It sits within Blood, Heart and Circulation.

The lead U.S. institute for this subject is the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.

When to speak to someone. Reading about a topic cannot tell you whether it applies to you. Speak to a doctor or pharmacist if symptoms are severe, sudden, getting worse, or simply not going away — and seek emergency care immediately for chest pain, breathing difficulty, sudden weakness or confusion, or a serious allergic reaction.

Research on Vascular Diseases

48,477 studies areregistered for this condition on ClinicalTrials.gov, the U.S. National Library of Medicine's public registry. A selection is below — the links go straight to the registry entry, not to a summary of ours.

What a registered study does and does not mean. Registration means a study exists and has been declared publicly. It says nothing about whether the treatment being tested works, is safe, or is available to you. Many studies find no benefit — that is what research is for. Never seek out an experimental treatment on the strength of a registry entry alone.

Research currently under way

Research already completed

Study data from ClinicalTrials.gov, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine. Retrieved 2026-07-30. Registry entries are supplied by study sponsors and investigators; ClinicalTrials.gov does not verify their scientific validity. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH.

Where to read more

Rather than paraphrase, we point you to the primary sources. Every link below is to a government health agency, a national institute or a recognised medical body — grouped by what you are trying to find out.

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Diagnosis and Tests

Treatments and Therapies

Genetics

Clinical Trials

Medical subject headings

Clinicians and researchers index this subject under Vascular Diseases. These are the terms to use when searching medical literature.

This page is built from the MedlinePlus health topic record for Vascular Diseases, a service of the U.S. National Library of Medicine (NLM), National Institutes of Health. Information is from MedlinePlus.gov. PocketsInfo is not affiliated with, and is not endorsed by, the NLM or the NIH. Retrieved 30 July 2026.