Rutherford Classification for PAD

When it activates

Scribeable activates a calculator from the encounter. The Rutherford Classification for PAD can activate when the transcript or pasted chart context documents any of these:

• Peripheral arterial disease staging
• Claudication severity assessment
• Critical limb ischemia evaluation
• PAD treatment planning

Note-type scope: it activates on notes whose subject resolves to cardiology, perioperative, hospital medicine. A note that resolves to another subject does not carry it even when the clinician's specialty matches; a note with no resolvable subject (a generic consultation) falls back to the specialty match.

Inputs the note needs

1 input. Each is resolved from the transcript, the pasted chart context and charted labs; at this calculator’s tier a missing input is never requested, and a missing required input keeps the score out of the draft.

Scoring

Category 0: Asymptomatic. 1: Mild claudication. 2: Moderate claudication. 3: Severe claudication. 4: Ischemic rest pain. 5: Minor tissue loss. 6: Major tissue loss.

Interpretation

0: Asymptomatic — monitor. 1-3: Claudication — exercise therapy, risk factor modification, ± revascularization. 4: Rest pain — revascularization indicated. 5-6: Tissue loss — urgent revascularization or amputation consideration.

Evidence

Sources carried in Scribeable's citation registry for this calculator; guideline version: Rutherford RB et al. 1997.

• Rutherford RB et al. Recommended standards for reports dealing with lower extremity ischemia: revised versionRutherford et al. (PAD Classification) 1997 · 1997 · SVS/ISCVS · Consensus · link last verified 2026-03-28

How Scribeable handles it in the note

When an encounter activates the Rutherford Classification for PAD (its highest tier is recommended), Scribeable does not ask you for missing inputs. The score is computed in code from whatever inputs resolve from the transcript, the pasted chart context or charted labs; a computed value is written into the draft only when every required input already resolves.

The score is computed in code from the resolved inputs, not recalled by the language model. A stated Rutherford Classification for PAD value is compared against the computed one when the draft's structured summary carries it; a disagreement found there is flagged to the second drafting pass, which is instructed to correct the score and its interpretation, unless Scribeable has supplied the computed value to that pass, in which case the value the draft writes is checked against the supplied one and a detected difference is shown beside the note for you to adjudicate rather than silently rewritten.

Classified as a staging or classification system: activated strictly, because a wrong stage on the wrong patient is a documentation hazard.

Related calculators

• Fontaine Classification for PADStages peripheral arterial disease severity using clinical presentation
• Ankle-Brachial Index (ABI)Diagnoses and quantifies severity of peripheral artery disease by comparing ankle and brachial systolic pressures
• SVS WIfI ClassificationStratifies threatened limbs by wound, ischemia, and foot infection severity for amputation risk estimation
• Duke Activity Status Index (DASI)Estimates functional capacity in METs for perioperative cardiac risk assessment
• Revised Cardiac Risk Index (RCRI)Estimates perioperative cardiac risk for non-cardiac surgery
• CHA2DS2-VASc ScoreStratifies stroke risk in non-valvular atrial fibrillation to guide anticoagulation decisions

Can activate in: Internal Medicine, Primary Care, Cardiology, Vascular Surgery, Hospital Medicine.