Muscle blood flow during exercise in intermittent claudication. Validation of the 133-xenon clearance technique: clinical use by comparison to plethysmography and walking distance

Pathophysiological considerations predict that exercise blood flows at comparable work loads must always be reduced in claudicants in comparison to normal subjects. The present study verified that the exercise blood flow determined by 133 xenon clearance measurements in the gastrocnemius muscle in claudicants and in a control group differed widely. As expected, a statistically significant correlation was found between the first flow by plethysmography and the maximal exercise blood flow determined by the 133 xenon clearance technique in the patients and for the whole material (but not for the control group alone). The exercise blood flow determined by 133 xenon clearance in the claudicants was statistically significantly correlated to the walking distance, measured on a treadmill, while the postexercise blood flow as measured by plethysmography was not. This finding establishes the concept, that the 133 xenon clearance technique can be applied in quantitating the degree of arterial insufficiency.