Focal lesions of muscle in peripheral vascular disease.

Lesions in skeletal muscle resulting from ischemia caused by peripheral vascular disease in two patients were essentially identical to the early muscle lesions of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) patients and carriers of that disease, as well as to the early muscle lesions of experimental animals with aorta ligations plus a small dose of 5-hydroxytryptamine (serotonin). The one similarity is harmonious with, although does not necessarily advance, the ischemia hypothesis of DMD, and the other supports the ischemia mechanism proposed in the animal model.