Angiography, Thermography and Other Circulation Tests in Vascular Tumours of the Hand

Abstract

Studies were undertaken to compare and evaluate angiographic findings, thermography, systolic digital pressure and blood flow measurements in the assessment of patients with vascular tumours in the upper extremity. Fourteen patients, eight with hemodynamically active and six with hemodynamically slow tumours were investigated. Angiography was necessary to establish the preoperative diagnosis and estimate the spread of these vascular tumours. Small arterio-venous shunts with diffuse spread in the extremity caused a moderate temperature increase over the whole area, whereas large or medium-sized shunts and conglomerates of small shunts were visible as "hot spots" on the thermograms obtained by high resolution, infrared thermo graphic technique. In such cases thermography, a non-invasive and inexpen sive procedure, can replace angiography in the post-operative follow-up examinations, or can be used to follow the course of disease in non-operated patients. In two cases thermograms indicated presence of arterio-venous shunts, while no such communications could be seen on the preoperative angiograms. It is therefore assumed that thermography is a more sensitive method for the detection of very small shunts.