Incidence of membranous lipodystrophy-like change among patients with limb necrosis caused by chronic arterial obstruction.

Although membranocystic changes of adipose tissue, characteristic of membranous lipodystrophy, can be found in some cases of limb ischemic necrosis caused by arteriosclerotic obstruction, the incidence of the lesions in several forms of limb ischemia is not known. Subcutaneous fat of 53 patients with limb ischemic necrosis was studied histologically and ultrastructurally for the presence of membranocystic changes. The lesions were found in 11 (38%) of 29 cases of thromboangiitis obliterans, 15 (75%) of 20 cases of arteriosclerotic obstruction, and two (50%) of four cases of progressive systemic sclerosis. The membranous lipodystrophy-like changes can be produced by several forms of chronic circulatory disturbance and they are one of the nonspecific changes of adipose tissue.