Aortic aneurysmal disease. A generalized dilating diathesis
A. S. Ward
Vascular Unit, Basingstoke District Hospital, England.
The association of dilated peripheral arteries with aortic aneurysmal
disease has previously been suspected, but is not well documented. To test
this association, the diameters of the common femoral, popliteal, brachial,
common carotid, internal carotid, and external carotid arteries were
measured with a color-flow duplex scan in 30 control subjects and 36
patients with aortic aneurysm matched for age, sex, smoking habits, and
hypertension. Mean peripheral artery diameter was significantly greater in
patients with aortic aneurysm than in controls at all measurement sites.
Peripheral artery dilatation was identified at sites that are seldom, if
ever, involved in atherosclerosis. These findings lend support to the view
that there is a generalized dilating diathesis in aortic aneurysmal disease
that may be unrelated to atherosclerosis.
