Gray-scale ultrasound diagnosis of peripheral arterial aneurysms.

Diagnostic ultrasound is a feasible technique for demonstrating the presence of an aneurysm in the popliteal, femoral, iliac, and brachial arteries. All aneurysms were correctly identified and confirmed by arteriography, surgery, or examination of the amputated specimen. The popliteal artery in healthy volunteers had a mean size of 0.8 +/- 0.2 cm. Neither the age nor the sex of the patient influenced artery size. In patients with known abdominal aortic aneurysms of significant atherosclerosis, the popliteal size was within two standard deviations from the mean of normal popliteal arteries.