Assessment of arterial obstruction in vessels supplying the fingers by measurement of local blood pressures and the skin temperature response test--correlation with angiographic evidence.

The systolic blood pressure measured in the fingers and wrists by the spectroscopic method and in the arm by auscultation were correlated with angiographic evidence of organic arterial obstruction in 29 patients. The pressures also were measured in 14 normal people. Results in the normal people suggest that a difference of more than 15 mm. Hg between the pressure measured simultaneously in corresponding fingers (or any two or more fingers), an absolute digital pressure less than 70 mm. Hg, or wrist-to-digit gradient of more than 30 mm. Hg, all in the warm subject and warmed hand, indicated the presence of organic obstruction. These criteria indicated the presence of organic arterial obstructive disease in 25 of 26 hands with definite angiographic evidence of it. The pressures were "normal" in five hands with no angiographic evidence of organic arterial obstruction. The digital skin temperature response to indirect heating was much less successful than were pressure measurements in identifying fingers with organic arterial obstructive disease.