Effect of a proteinase inhibitor on intermittent claudication or on pain at rest in patients with peripheral arterial disease.

Twenty patients with peripheral arterial disease and 10 normal controls were submitted to i.v. injection of aprotinin, polypeptide (mol.wt. 6512) extracted from bovine lung, in order to examine its effects on: (a) lower limbs pain, (b) lower limbs sensibility, (c) calf blood flow. Aprotinin (100,000 Ku i.v. diluted in NaCl 0.9%) was given in a single dose or twice a day for a week; for control the same subject received, before or after aprotinin, an equivalent volume of diluent (0.9% NaCl). The results demonstrate that aprotinin is able to increase the initial pain limit walking tolerance and to decrease the intensity of pain at rest and of myalgic or "trigger" areas. No variation was observed on skin sensibility and on calf blood flow, both basal resting and hyperemic. The favorable effect of examined polypeptide on ischemic pain can be attributed neither to increase of calf blood flow nor to influence on perception of painful stimuli. It seems therefore to suggest that aprotinin acts on biochemical mechanisms that cause the ischemic pain. Presumably it inhibits kininogenases and tissue protein-hydrolyzine enzymes activated in the course of ischemia.