Aortic aneurysmal disease. A generalized dilating diathesis.

The association of dilated peripheral arteries with aortic aneurysmal disease has previously been suspected, but is not well documented. To test this association, the diameters of the common femoral, popliteal, brachial, common carotid, internal carotid, and external carotid arteries were measured with a color-flow duplex scan in 30 control subjects and 36 patients with aortic aneurysm matched for age, sex, smoking habits, and hypertension. Mean peripheral artery diameter was significantly greater in patients with aortic aneurysm than in controls at all measurement sites. Peripheral artery dilatation was identified at sites that are seldom, if ever, involved in atherosclerosis. These findings lend support to the view that there is a generalized dilating diathesis in aortic aneurysmal disease that may be unrelated to atherosclerosis.