The prospective study assessed associations between hemostatic and inflammatory blood factors and progression of lower extremity arterial ischemia and cardiovascular events in 346 men and women with lower extremity peripheral arterial disease (PAD) and 203 men and women without PAD.The study was ancillary to an NHLBI funded prospective study of functional and cardiovascular outcomes in men and women with PAD, the Walking and Leg Circulation Study (WALCS). The blood factors under study which included fibrinogen, PAI-1, TPA antigen, d-dimer, prothrombin 1.2, and C-reactive protein (CRP), were associated with progression of coronary atherosclerosis in proposed models of the pathogenesis of coronary atherosclerosis, but were not well studied in PAD.