Oxygen pressure in ischemic muscle tissue of patients with chronic occlusive arterial diseases.

Local tissue oxygen pressure was measured with micro-Pt-electrodes in the resting tibialis anterior muscles of 10 patients with chronic occlusive arterial disease and in 9 healthy subjects. The mean pO2 values in the patient group was 13.3 +/- 5.4 Torr, and 27.2 +/- 4.4 Torr in the control group. The difference is highly statistically significant. Preliminary results of treatment of 10 patients with the rheologically-active drug Ancrod show a statistically significant increase of oxygen pressure in the ischemic muscle tissue. Measurement of muscle tissue pO2 with microelectrodes seems to be an objective and quantitative method to investigate the oxygen supply to ischemic muscles and to judge the effects of therapeutic measures.