Forearm blood flow measurements using technetium-99m human serum albumin following brachial arteriotomy

A simple, low cost method for measuring forearm blood flow during reactive hyperemia has been developed. Subjects are seated with hands and forearms over a large field-of-view gamma camera. Blood pressure cuffs inflated above the elbows isolate the blood in the forearms and hands and induce a hyperemic response. The remaining blood pool is labeled with technetium. The rate of increase of activity following release of the cuffs is measured from the gradient of time-activity curves and is calibrated for flow by counting a venous blood sample. The technique has been applied to a group of normal controls and to symptomatic and asymptomatic patients following right brachial arteriotomy. Forearm blood flow in normal subjects was 32.9 +/- 6.4 ml/100 ml/min and for subjects with occlusion of the brachial artery was 6.4 +/- 2.1 ml/100 ml/min. The method is simple, widely available, and reproducible. The good signal to noise ratio allows it to be used in cases of very low flow either as an aid to diagnosis or to measure treatment response.