[Doppler sonography of extracranial cerebrovascular and peripheral arteries in arteriosclerosis risk factors and in coronary heart disease].

Doppler examination of the neck and limbs of 160 patients with a predisposition to arterial vascular disease in the presence of hypertension, hyperlipoproteinaemia, cigarette smoking and diabetes mellitus, 66% of whom had a combination of two or more of these risk factors, showed in 48 cases single or combined lesions in the arteries of the neck. One patient had unilateral stenosis of the common carotid artery; 20 patients showed unilateral and seven bilateral stenosis of the internal carotid artery; nine patients had unilateral and two patients bilateral stenosis of the external carotid artery; 28 patients showed unilateral flow reduction in the vertebral artery. There was a combined lesion of two or three vessels of the neck in 12 patients. Stenotic peripheral arteries at different levels of the leg with ankle pressure index decrease of up to 22.5% were detected in 54 patients.These peripheral arterial diseases were associated with stenotic carotid arteries in 28%. Peripheral vascular lesions were present in 40% of patients stenotic carotid arteries. Of the 160 patients studied 67 had proven coronary heart disease; 22% of these showed stenotic carotid arteries and 29% showed stenotic peripheral arteries. Combined lesions of the coronary, carotid and peripheral arteries were found in 13%.