Ischemia causes not only insufficiency of oxygen but also reduced availability of nutrients and inadequate removal of metabolic wastes.

The signs and symptoms of ischemia vary, as they can occur anywhere in the body and depend on the degree to which blood flow is interrupted.

[4] For example, clinical manifestations of acute limb ischemia (which can be summarized as the "six P's") include pain, pallor, pulseless, paresthesia, paralysis, and poikilothermia.

Paralysis is a very late sign of acute arterial ischemia and signals the death of nerves supplying the extremity.

Because nerves are extremely sensitive to hypoxia, limb paralysis or ischemic neuropathy may persist after revascularization and may be permanent.

Other causes are heart conditions including myocardial infarction, mitral valve disease, chronic atrial fibrillation, cardiomyopathies, and prosthesis, in all of which thrombi are prone to develop.

[9] Traumatic injury to an extremity may produce partial or total occlusion of a vessel from compression, shearing, or laceration.

[9] An inadequate flow of blood to a part of the body may be caused by any of the following: Ischemia results in tissue damage in a process known as ischemic cascade.

[9] If the condition of the ischemic limb is stabilized with anticoagulation, recently formed emboli may be treated with catheter-directed thrombolysis using intra-arterial infusion of a thrombolytic agent (e.g., recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), streptokinase, or urokinase).

If the patient continues to have a risk of further embolization from some persistent source, such as chronic atrial fibrillation, treatment includes long-term oral anticoagulation to prevent further acute arterial ischemic episodes.

[28][29] The Infarct Combat Project (ICP) is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1998 to fight ischemic heart diseases through education and research.

[30] The word ischemia (/ɪˈskiːmiə/) is from Greek ἴσχαιμος iskhaimos 'staunching blood', from ἴσχω iskhο 'keep back, restrain' and αἷμα haima 'blood'.