Inter-Society Consensus for the Management of Peripheral Arterial Disease (TASC II) - Introduction

Sep 14, 2026

Inter-Society Consensus for the Management of Peripheral Arterial Disease (TASC II) describes an updated, internationally representative guideline development process initiated in 2004. It aims to provide an abbreviated, evidence-informed framework for diagnosis and management of PAD, emphasizing diabetes and practical guidance for vascular specialists and primary care physicians. Recommendations are graded by levels of evidence and integrated with patients’ preferences, local facility availability, and appropriate specialist referral.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryHealthcare

FormatPDF

Pages63

Reading Time2 h 39 min

AccessFree to download

Introduction

Goals of the updated consensus

Recommendation grading of evidence

Process and working group review

Scope of patient populations and emphasis

Inter-Society Consensus for the Management of Peripheral Arterial Disease (TASC II) L. Norgren,a W.R. Hiatt,b J.A. Dormandy, M.R. Nehler, K.A. Harris, and F.G.R. Fowkes on behalf of the TASC II Working Group, Örebro, Sweden and Denver, Colorado INTRODUCTION The Trans-Atlantic Inter-Society Consensus Document on Management of Peripheral Arterial Disease (TASC) was published in January 2000 1-3 as a result of cooperation between fourteen medical and surgical vascular, cardiovascular, vascular radiology and cardiology societies in Europe and North America. This comprehensive document had a major impact on vascular care amongst specialists. In subsequent years, the ﬁeld has progressed with the publication of the CoCaLis document4 and the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Guidelines for the Management of Peripheral Arterial Disease.5 Aiming to continue to reach a readership of vascular specialists, but also physicians in primary health care who see patients with peripheral arterial disease (PAD), another consensus process was initiated during 2004 . This new consensus document has been developed with a broader international representation, including Europe, North America, Asia, Africa and Australia, and with a much larger distribution and dissemination of the information. The goals of this new consensus are to provide an abbreviated document (compared with the publication in 2000), to focus on key aspects of diagnosis and management, and to update the information based on new publications and the newer guidelines, but not to add an extensive list of references. Unreferenced statements are, therefore, to be found, provided they are recognized as common practice by the authors, with existing evidence. The recommendations are graded according to levels of evidence. It should also be emphasized that good practice is based on a combination of the scientiﬁc evidence described below, patients’ preferences, and local availability of facilities and trained professionals. Good practice also includes appropriate specialist referral. From the Department of Surgery, University Hospital,a and University of Colorado School of Medicine and Colorado Prevention Center.b Correspondence: L. Norgren, Department of Surgery, University Hospital,Örebro, Sweden (e-mail: [lars.norgren@orebroll.se](lars.norgren@orebroll.se)) and W.R. Hiatt, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Denver, CO (e-mail: [will.hiatt@uchsc.edu](will.hiatt@uchsc.edu)). 0741-5214/$32.00 Copyright © 2007 by The Society for Vascular Surgery. doi:10.1016/j.jvs.2006.12.037 Process Representatives of sixteen societies from Europe, North America, Australia, South Africa and Japan were elected from their respective society and were called together in 2004 to form the new Working Group. Specialists in health economics, health outcomes and evidence-based medicine were also included to elaborate on the text for the following sections: history, epidemiology and risk factors; management of risk factors; intermittent claudication; critical limb ischemia; acute limb ischemia; and technologies (intervention/revascularization and imaging) . The Working Group reviewed the literature and, after extensive correspondence and meetings, proposed a series of draft documents with clear recommendations for the diagnosis and treatment of PAD. Each participating society reviewed and commented on these draft consensus documents. The liaison member from each society then took these views back to the Working Group, where all of the amendments, additions and alterations suggested by each participating society were discussed, and the ﬁnal Consensus Document was agreed upon. The participating societies were then again invited to review the ﬁnal document and endorse it if they agreed with its contents. If an individual participating society did not accept any speciﬁc recommendation, this is clearly indicated in the ﬁnal document. Therefore, except where such speciﬁc e

FAQs

What prompted the TASC II consensus update in 2004?

A new consensus process was initiated in 2004 to reach both vascular specialists and primary care physicians with updated guidance based on newer publications and guidelines, while keeping the document abbreviated and not heavily referenced.

How is the TASC II document recommendation quality graded?

Recommendations and selected statements are rated according to guidance from the former US Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, now the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, based on the level and type of available evidence.

Which clinical sections does the TASC II working group develop recommendations for?

The working group elaborated text for history, epidemiology and risk factors; management of risk factors; intermittent claudication; critical limb ischemia; acute limb ischemia; and technologies including intervention/revascularization and imaging.

Sep 14, 2026

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