Peripheral arterial reactivity in patients with peptic ulcers and in healthy subjects

With an oscillograph according to Gesenius and Keller, the authors investigated the oscillographic waves in lower limbs and their reductions after exposition to cold and exercise in 27 men and 22 women with gastric or duodenal ulcer as well as in 18 healthy men and 12 healthy women. Both groups were subdivided into age categories from 19 to 30 and from 45 to 54 years. It was found that 1) peripheral arteries in men in the lower age category with duodenal ulcer reacted to cold stimulus by a more marked vasoconstriction than the arteries in healthy men in the same age category; 2) in women with duodenal ulcer the same observation was made in not only the younger, but also in the higher age category; 3) peripheral vasoconstriction after application of cold in women with duodenal ulcer, aged up to 30 years and 45-54 years was higher than in women with gastric ulcer in the corresponding age categories; 4) peripheral arteries of the younger men as well as of the younger and older women with duodenal ulcer reacted often more strongly to exercise and to exercise following application of cold in comparison with corresponding controls, and in the case of the women, in addition, with those with gastric ulcer.