[Clinical value of hemorrheology in peripheral arterial occlusive diseases]

The authors report their study on the red blood cell deformability of 30 patients with isolated and combined obstructive lesions in both aorto-iliac and femoral trunk, performed before and after the exercise test. Such a test does not significantly change the deformability in normal patients while, on the contrary, the exercise test significantly changes the deformability in patients affected by atherosclerotic disease. Furthermore, in the experience of the authors the decrease of the deformability is directly related to the degree of the circulatory impairment.