Peripheral artery disease (PAD) and aortic aneurysms are common diseases in older populations, sharing common aetiological risk factors. From community-based trials assessing ankle–brachial indices, 2–4% of the general population have been shown to be affected by PAD, which increases up to 15% in those above 70 years of age. About 30–40% of the in-hospital cases with PAD have critical limb ischaemia and suffer from a 1-year mortality of 20–40%. Abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) also show a relatively high prevalence of about 1–2% in the general population as found by large-scale, systematic duplex screening. Of these, about 5% come to hospital admittance with a ruptured AAA which is still associated with an in-hospital mortality of up to 50%. The prevalence of thoracic aortic aneurysms (TAAs) was reported to be at about 0.16–0.34% in selected subgroups of the general population. The incident cases of TAAs have risen from 10/100,000 cases in the late 1980s up to about 17/100,000 cases in the first decade of this millennium. It is noteworthy that PAD and aortic aneurysms as well as their associated co-morbidities remain in many cases underdiagnosed and undertreated. This leads to a high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality which could not be obviously markedly reduced in the recent decades. Since nearly all vascular disorders are systemic diseases, not only the specific vessel bed which leads to a presentation should be assessed but also all other possible vascular manifestations should be thoroughly examined to reduce the high rates of adverse events and the persistent poor outcome.