Reactive hyperemia in patients with intermittent claudication, and correlation with other diagnostic methods

The value of blood flow measurements was evaluated in 16 patients with intermittent claudication and in 17 healthy sex and age-matched volunteers. Limb volume was recorded with an ECG-triggered venous occlusion plethysmograph (Periflow, Janssen), and the flow values were automatically plotted on a second channel. Resting blood flow was similar in both groups, but all the parameters from the reactive hyperemia curve in the claudication group were significantly different from those in the control group. The present data are preliminary in this respect. In most patients visual inspection of the curve allows differentiation of normal and abnormal. Variability of the flow parameters is found to be small; the time-to-peak flow varies the most, but gives at the same time the largest different results in both groups. Finally, there is a positive correlation between resting blood flow, peak blood flow, and walking distance. The present results suggest that flow measurements provide valuable and objective information about the degree of functional distress caused by obliterative vascular diseases in the limbs.