Dermofluorography (DFG) is based upon intravenously injection of sodiu
m-fluorescein and subsequent detection of the skin fluorescence. We de
veloped an exitationlamp with high intensity and constant output, thus
beeing able to observe the patients extremities continuously with a C
CD-videocamera attached to a digital image processing unit. For the ev
aluation a pseudocolor-coded summation image enables a direct estimati
on of the arrival of the dye and the topographical distribution of the
fluorescence. The average appearance time, the initial slope (the rat
e of density increase during the first 30 s after appearance) and maxi
mal fluorescence (the average of density at 10 min) are automatically
computed for various regions of interest. We investigated 12 patients
suffering from peripheral arterial occlusive disease (6 in stage II-II
I and 6 in stage IV according to the Fontaine classification), 4 patie
nts with chronic venous insufficiency and 2 patients after lumbal symp
athetic block and compared the results with those of 11 healthy subjec
ts. The patients with peripheral arterial occlusive disease showed an
increased skin perfusion at rest. The method allows an evaluation of t
he completeness of a lumbar block. Because of the existence of several
factors with different influences on the skin fluorescense detected b
y dermofluorography, it is difficult to interpret the findings with re
gard to microvascular lesions in peripheral arterial occlusive disease
and chronic venous insufficiency without combination with other techn
iques studying skin perfusion.