Continuous measurement of transcutaneous oxygen tension on stress test in claudicants and normals

Subjective evaluation of hemodynamics by stress tests in claudicants should be made to establish severity of functional ischemia. As an indispensable examination of vascular laboratory, non-invasive, simple methods can only satisfy methodological conditions. The aim of this study was to apply the transcutaneous oxygen tension measurement for a non-invasive, continuous detector of hemodynamic responses in skin circulation by stress tests and to elucidate the clinical usefulness of this technique. Investigated were 20 legs in patients with intermittent claudication and 9 legs in healthy persons as controls. Ten legs with ischemic pain during exercise loading revealed abnormal transcutaneous oxygen tension (tcPO2) curves in comparison with those with in normal legs. Over the continuous tcPO2 curve, the minimum tcPO2 at the reverse postural change after exercise loading was the most reliable indicator for evaluating induced ischemia. We conclude that hemodynamic responses on stress tests should be analyzed both during and after exercise loading, and that the continuous tcPO2 curve constitutes a useful method for evaluating and following up the claudicants.