[Effect of different stress tests on ankle blood pressure in patients with arterial circulatory disorders]

Under normal conditions systolic ankle blood pressure exceeds that at the arm at rest and one minute after exercise, thus rendering the arm-ankle difference negative. In the presence of arterial obstructions this difference is positive at rest or becomes positive after exercise. To determine its value and applicability in a given case, several ways of stress testing have been compared. On average the increase in pressure difference produced by 100 m exercise on a treadmill ergometer over pressure difference at rest followed the equation: delta P100m = 1.53 delta PR + 24.8 mm Hg, r = 0.92. The increase after maximum or 200 m exercise and that after standardized tip-toeing was comparable. Postocclusive reactive hyperemia produced a smaller but still significant increase. When patients were compared after 100 m treadmill exercise, those with stenoses exhibited a greater increase than those with complete occlusions, even though the resting pressure difference was equal.