[Doppler ultrasound measurement of blood circulation in the lower extremity of man. I. Normal values at rest and changes in trauma and vascular diseases].

A duplex ultrasonographic system was used to examine the common femoral artery in left and right legs of 49 fit young men and 15 fit young women, to find out the normal blood flow in the human leg during rest. By this method the diameter of the vessel and the time average velocity could be measured and the blood flow calculated. Each person underwent three examinations of each leg after 10-min rests. The average diameter of the common femoral artery was 91 +/- 10 mm (95 mm in the men and 80 mm in the women), the average blood flow 226.2 +/- 82.1 ml/min (235.9 ml/min in the men and 189.6 ml/min the the women). Compared with other methods used for femoral blood flow studies, we found the duplex ultrasound system reliable, non-invasive, and infinitely repeatable. This method therefore also seems appropriate for clinical studies. In a few tests carried out in trauma patients we found a pronounced increase in blood flow after a few days, and also an expected increase in a patient with arterio-venous fistula and an expected decrease in one with arterial occlusive disease. These examinations were performed to establish a method for further examinations of long-lasting blood flow alterations in trauma patients, which will be reported in another paper.