The clinical evaluation of peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is difficult and yet critically important so that patients receive the care they need. The greatest problem is that clinical evaluation is limited in excluding significant PAD. In short, none of the various clinical findings have a high negative predictive value for PAD. Even simple pulse palpation is fraught with error. All patients with non healing ulcers or wounds or with exertional leg pain should undergo objective physiologic testing.
Iliac vein compression may cause pelvic venous congestion.
The tip of a hydrophilic wire was fractured and subsequently retrieved during the crossing of a distal anterior tibial artery near occlusion
46 year old male, type 1 diabetes, with ulcers on several toes. Patient had palpable pulses at the ankle.