Artery and Vein Disease Quiz

See Arterial Diseases. Option D is correct because the level of the narrowing can be worked out from the pulses. A stenosis reduces the pressure and the pulse below it, so the lowest palpable pulse sits just above the diseased segment. Here the femoral pulse can be felt, but the popliteal and pedal (foot) pulses cannot, so the narrowing lies between the groin and the knee. This is the segment of the superficial femoral artery, the long artery that runs down the thigh before it becomes the popliteal artery behind the knee. Disease at this level, called femoropopliteal disease, classically causes pain in the calf because the calf muscles are supplied by arteries below the narrowing. Disease higher up, in the aortoiliac segment, causes pain in the buttock, thigh or calf and reduces the femoral pulses too.

• Rule: the lowest palpable pulse sits just above the narrowing.
• Findings: the femoral pulse is present but the popliteal and pedal pulses are absent.
• Site: the narrowing lies between the groin and the knee, in the superficial femoral artery.
• Symptom: femoropopliteal disease classically causes calf pain.

A simple rule is that the narrowing lies just beyond the last pulse you can feel.