[The guideline 'Diagnosis and treatment of peripheral artery disease of the lower extremities' is limited to scientifically proven recommendations].

The guideline in question is the product of a cooperative effort by the Dutch Society of Vascular Surgery and the Section on Interventional Radiology of the Dutch Society of Radiology; it focuses on the diagnostic work-up and initial treatment. The guideline presents an outline of several diagnostic modalities as well as endovascular and surgical interventions. Based on the principle of evidence-based medicine, it provides the clinician with an excellent outline of the diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities. A minor disadvantage of this method is that the difference between acute arterial thrombosis and arterial emboli, as well as the relation between symptoms and the localisation of occlusions, the age of the patient and co-morbidity, are not always clear.