[Blood and plasma viscosity versus claudication distance in patients with obliterative atherosclerosis of the lower limbs].

The aim of the investigations was to show the influence of increased blood and plasma viscosity on the claudication distance in patients with obliterative atherosclerosis of lower limbs. The investigations were carried out in 53 patients: 41 men and 12 women (group I, age 45-67 years). The control group consisted of 100 healthy persons (group II) with similar range of age. The rheological studies of blood were carried out by low-shear 100 Contraves viscometer, the plasma viscosity--by means of capillary viscometer. Moreover, the total lipids, alpha, pre-beta, beta-lipoproteins, triglycerides, total cholesterol, free fatty acids, fibrinogen and hematocrit of the blood were determined. The blood for above mentioned estimations was collected before testing of the claudication distance. A significant increase of blood and plasma has been shown as well as an increase of total lipids, fibrinogen, triglycerides, total cholesterol, free fatty acids. The alpha lipoproteins were significant decreased in patients with intermittent claudication compared to the controls. The claudication distance ranged 10-500 m (the mean: 143 +/- 119 m). The correlation between claudication distance and blood and plasma viscosity was significantly negative (r = -0.42, p less than 0.001 and r = -0.32, p less than 0.05 respectively). The obtained results indicated that an increase of blood and plasma viscosity in patients with obliterative atherosclerosis of lower limbs was correlated to the decrease of claudication distance.