[An outpatient contingent of patients with chronic arterial obliterating diseases of the extremities]

Abstract

Case records of 2135 outpatients referred to a specialized department with a provisional diagnosis of limb arterial affection have been analyzed. It appeared that in 35% of the cases the diagnosis was erroneous, the complaints being due to neurological and locomotor disturbances. Nosological entities of confirmed vascular diseases were the following: obliterating atherosclerosis (81.8%), obliterating peripheral aortic arteritis (9%), obliterating atherosclerosis associated with diabetic angiopathy (6%), obliterating thromboangiitis (1.6%), Raynaud's disease (1.6%). The disease-specific age pattern showed that obliterating atherosclerosis and age-specific cholesterol levels have the same trends, that there may be transformation of obliterating thromboangiitis into nonspecific aortic arteritis which eventuates in advanced age into obliterating atherosclerosis.