[Value of the treadmill exercise test for long-term monitoring of lower-limb arteriopathies].

The use of the treadmill exercise test is envisaged only as a means of chronic surveillance of the arteriopathy. The walking distance measured in this way is a complex factor to analyze due to interference of non-vascular phenomena and the effect of training. Manometric data (distal arterial pressure, normalized by determination of the distal pressure/central pressure quotient expressed as percent) were collected during recuperation. Variability (of the order of 18% after 5 min) was studied and compared with that of manometric data at rest (approximately 10%). Fifty-one unoperated patients with arteriopathy were studied prospectively one year after their first visit, and an attempt made to establish a clinical judgement, as to the course of the disease, on the basis of hemodynamic tests, taking into account their variability. Examination at rest is usually sufficient for a valid clinical judgement to be made. However, certain types of treatment such as transluminal angioplasty produce effects that appear to evaluate it with greater precision by examination of dynamic data. Certain specific cases also reveal enhanced sensitivity of variables recorded in hemodynamic parameters after effort. In these cases both manometric and femoral Doppler signal data should be studied.