Diagnosis of occlusive lesions of upper extremity arteries in patients with thromboangiitis obliterans.

The study accrued 84 patients suffering from thromboangiitis obliterans (TO) examined and treated at the A.V. Vishnevsky Institute of Surgery, RAMS, over the period 1988 to 2002. Based on the complaints on the part of the upper extremities the patients were distributed into four groups. Sixteen (19.1%) TO patients did not make any complaints on the part of the arms (degree I ischemia). Thirty-eight (45.2%) patients complained of numbness and paresthesia, chiefly of the tips of the fingers on both hands (degree II ischemia). Six (7.1%) persons complained of pains in the hands at physical exercise (decree III ischemia). Ulcers and necroses of the fingers were present in 24 (28.6%) patients (degree IV ischemia). The diagnostic procedures for arterial lesion of the upper extremities included laboratory investigations, duplex scanning of the great arteries, of the arteries of the hands, fingers and nail matrix, wide-field capillaroscopy, oxygen tension measurements, and angiography as well. Comparison of the clinical manifestations of arterial lesion of the upper extremities in TO patients to the data supplied by different research methods has revealed a direct correlation between the degree of ischemia and the pathomorphological as well as functional changes which increased as the ischemic syndrome was aggravated. As a result of the present work, there have been studied and systematized the criteria for the diagnosis of the degree of arterial lesion of the upper extremities in TO patients, based on the data, supplied by duplex scanning, capillaroscopy, measurements of transcutaneous oxygen tension and angiography. In addition, there has been studied the role of the humoral component of immunity in the delineation of inflammatory activity in patients with TO.