Abdominal bruits. Clinical and angiographic correlation.

The results of abdominal auscultation were correlated with abdominal angiograms in 503 patients. Bruits were heard in 106 (21%). The majority of bruitswere in the epigastrium, mainly because of a high incidence of celiac artery stenosis usually of the extrinsic compression type. Sixty-seven patients had stenoses or occlusions of one or more renal arteries and 27 (40%) had bruits. Most of these patients, however, had other possible causes for their bruits, usually related to atherosclerosis of coincidental celiac compression. Collateral channels were considered to be the cause of epigastric bruits in eight of ten patients with complete occlusion of the celiac artery and in two patients with spelic artery occlusions. Collateral channels may be partly responsible for bruits in many patients with celiac artery stenosis.