A comparison between the ankle systolic pressure and mercury strain gauge plethysmography in the assessment of patients with arterial disease of the lower limbs.

Mercury strain gauge plethysmography and ankle systolic pressure measurements have been used in the assessment of patients with arterial disease affecting the lower limbs. Plethysmography can differentiate those patients with arterial disease from normal subjects, but it is not possible to determine the site of arterial disease as judged angiographically. It is possible to differentiate patients with rest pain from those patients experiencing intermittent claudication by means of the time to peak flow and time to half peak flow. Because of the significant positive correlation between the changes in peak flow and pressure index produced by reconstructive arterial surgery, the plethysmograph has not been shown to have any advantage over ankle systolic pressure measurements in assessing the results of surgery for peripheral arterial disease affecting the lower limb.