[Transcutaneous determination of oxygen and carbon dioxide pressure in patients with obliterating atherosclerosis of blood vessels of the lower limbs].

The method of transcutaneous determination of oxygen and carbon dioxide tension was used in examinations of healthy men (26 extremities) and 66 patients with obliterating atherosclerosis of the lower extremity arteries with different stages of the insufficient peripheral blood circulation. It was shown that oxygen tension in the foot skin was decreased in proportion to the decrease of the humero-malleolar index. In patients with obliterating atherosclerosis of the vessels and the II stage of insufficiency of blood circulation of the lower extremity the decrease of the humero-malleolar index and capillary blood flow of the foot skin did not result in a sharp disturbance of the gas regimen of the skin. In the III and IV stages of disturbances of blood circulation there occur failure of compensatory-adaptational mechanisms of tissue respiration accompanied not only by pronounced hypoxia but also by hypercapnia.