Transcutaneous oxygen tension during exercise in patients with claudication.

Transcutaneous oxygen tension (TcPO2) was monitored during maximal exercise in 10 patients with stable moderate to severe claudication. The TcPO2 fell by 16% at the onset of claudication and 32% at the maximum walking distance. On resting this decrease reached a maximum of 66% roughly four minutes after exercise. This was followed by a steady recovery. The percentage changes were reproducible in each patient and were appreciably different from the TcPO2 exercise profiles of normal healthy volunteers. TcPO2 monitoring during exercise is a simple, reproducible, cheap, and useful technique for assessing claudication and compares favourably with other techniques used to quantify this condition.