The influence of age, sex, smoking, and diabetes on lower limb transcutaneous oxygen tension in patients with arterial occlusive disease.

A retrospective study involving 129 patients (256 limbs) with unilateral or bilateral arterial occlusive disease was performed to assess the effects of age, sex, smoking, and diabetes on lower limb transcutaneous oxygen tension (TcPo2) measurements of were made according to a standard protocol, and the severity of lower limb arterial occlusive disease was estimated using the clinical signs and symptoms of disease or the ankle/brachial blood pressure index. The results demonstrated that age, sex, and smoking had no major effects on limb TcPo2 or disease severity; however, both limb TcPo2 and clinical disease severity were adversely affected by diabetes. When limbs with similar occlusive disease severity were compared, TcPo2 remained consistently lower in diabetic than in nondiabetic patients. We conclude that diabetes causes a reduction in limb TcPo2 beyond that which can be accounted for by large-vessel arterial occlusive disease alone.