Buerger's disease

• Hands or feet may be pale, red, or bluish
• Hands or feet may feel cold
• Pain in the hands and feet
  • Acute, severe
  • Burning or tingling
  • Often occurring at rest
• Pain in the legs, ankles, or feet when walking (intermittent claudication)
  • Often located in the arch of the foot
• Skin changes or ulcers on hands or feet

Note: Symptoms may worsen with exposure to cold or with emotional stress. Usually, two or more limbs are affected.

The hands or feet may have large, red, tender blood vessels. The pulse in the affected hands or feet may be low or missing.

The following tests may show blockage of blood vessels in the affected hands or feet:

• Angiography/arteriography of the extremity
• Doppler ultrasound of the extremity

Blood tests for other causes of vasculitis and inflammation may be done. Rarely, in cases where the diagnosis is unclear, a biopsy of the blood vessel is done.

Images

Thromboangiites obliterans

Circulatory system

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Thromboangiitis obliterans Treatment

Review Date: 11/05/2010
Reviewed By: Ariel D. Teitel, MD, MBA, Chief, Division of Rheumatology, St. Vincent's Hospital, New York, NY. Review provided by Verimed Healthcare Network. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc.

A.D.A.M., Inc. is accredited by URAC, also known as the American Accreditation HealthCare Commission (www.urac.org)