The intra-arterial ultrasonography as an exclusive exploration method to determine atherosclerotic lesions of the arterial wall in a preclinical stage.

ABSTRACT

An intravascular ultrasonography of the peripheral arterial system was applied following on the coronarography to 56 patients suffering from one or several critical stenoses on the coronary arteries. Though the clinical vascular examination and the subsequent noninvasive examination of the peripheral arterial system of all these patients turned out to be completely normal, the intra-arterial ultrasonography was able to reveal important atherosclerotic alterations in the wall of the abdominal aorta and of the iliac arteries in the case of 51 of these patients. The intra-arterial ultrasonography appears to be a very sensitive method of exploration, permitting atherosclerotic changes of the arterial wall to be detected at a very early pre-clinical stage, even long before these anomalies could have caused a specific pattern of complaints.