[The use of labelled albumin microspheres in the study of arteriovenous shunting in varicosities of the lower limbs (author's transl)].

The greater proportion of oxygen in the blood circulating in veins of the lower limbs bought to attention the possibility of pre-capillary arteriovenous shunting. The intra-arteriel injection of Technetium labelled serum albumin microspheres enables one to quantify arteriovenous shunts greater than 25 microns. The authors made a comparative study of arterio-venous shunting by blood gases analysis and isotopic techniques in twenty patients. The results seem to deny the existence of arteriovenous shunts in the genesis of essential varicose veins in the lower limb.