SPINAL CLAUDICATION VERSUS ARTERIAL CLAUDICATION

Ninety-three consecutive treadmill exercise stress tests were performe d for the assessment of peripheral vascular function, Thirty-one were for atypical claudication-like symptoms including pain on standing, re lief on sitting and back pain, Pedal pulses were palpable in 24 patien ts, Twenty-five patients (81%) had a negative stress test, suggesting a non-vascular aetiology and this finding was subsequently confirmed i n 24 of the 25, The final diagnoses were spinal stenosis 13, [CT = 3, myelogram = 5, neurosurgeon opinion = 4, MRI = 1], myositis 2, restles s leg syndrome 2 and osteoarthritis 7, Four patients had symptoms due to a combination of peripheral occlusive arterial disease and spinal s tenosis; the latter was considered the predominant disorder in all fou r, Of the original 31 patients with atypical symptoms, spinal stenosis was present in 13 (42%), Atypia - in the common syndrome of intermitt ent claudication should alert the surgeon to the possibility of spinal canal disorders, Further investigation may identify significant patho logy spinal stenosis in particular.