A New Heat Therapy Device for Home-based Leg Heating in Patients With Lower-extremity Peripheral Artery Disease

The Aquilo system consists of a garment that contains an inner water-circulating pad that is compressed by air bladders. The volume of air inflating the air bladders is pressure-controlled so the garment automatically adjusts to the shape and size of all legs. The touch screen console contains pre-programmed settings for ease of use. After baseline characteristics are established, patients will be provided with the Aquilo device and will be instructed on how to operate the equipment and how to rapidly remove the system if the alarm sounds or if they have any unusual feeling. Patients in both groups will also receive a logbook to record their sessions. Patients will undergo daily home-based leg HT (90 min/day, 7 days/week) for 12 weeks. Water at 42ºC will be perfused through the water-circulating garment for 90 min, with the goal of increasing skin temperature in the calf to \~37ºC.