Systemic effects associated with intermittent claudication. A model to study biochemical aspects of vascular disease?

Patients with intermittent claudication were used as a clinical model to study the effects of transient episodes of ischaemia. Compared with age and sex matched controls significantly greater increases in serum lipid peroxides and urinary microalbumin occurred after exercise. These results suggest that even relatively minor ischaemic episodes, as occur with claudication, are sufficient to cause tissue damage which may be mediated by oxygen derived free radicals. There are also changes in renal permselectivity suggestive of a generalised increase in vascular permeability. These preliminary findings may have important diagnostic, aetiological and therapeutic implications for patients with vascular disease.