The diagnosis of aorto-iliac stenosis: a comparison of thigh pressure measurement and femoral artery flow velocity profile.

Patients with vascular disease of the legs were studied by indirectly measuring thigh and ankle systolic pressures and recording the femoral artery flow profile before and after exercise with the aim of identifying those patients in whom significant aortoiliac stenosis may not have been diagnosed by angiography. A group of patients with aortoiliac stenosis or occlusion has been compared with a group with superficial femoral artery (SFA) occlusion and apparently normal controls. Resting thigh pressures were reduced in the group of patients with aortoiliac disease and with SFA occlusion. There was no significant change in thigh pressure with exercise in any group but ankle pressure fell with exercise in the patients with aortoiliac disease and with SFA occlusion. Femoral artery flow profiles provided better discrimination between the groups but six of the forty-two patients with SFA occlusions had abnormal tracings and a low thigh pressure suggesting they may have significant proximal disease.