Skin Blood Pressure in the Forehead in Patients With Internal Carotid Lesions

Abstract

The skin blood pressure was measured in the forehead using a photoelectric method in 12 subjects with occlusion and 16 subjects with arteriosclerotic stenosis of the internal carotid artery and compared to 18 normal subjects. The skin blood pressure was in average 37 mm Hg (SD 15) in the patients with occlusion, 44 mm Hg (SD 16) in the patients with stenosis, and 46 mm Hg (SD 10) in the normal subjects. During interruption of the blood supply from the external carotid artery (manual compression of the ipsilateral superficial temporal artery), the skin blood pressure was reduced in average 14 mm Hg in the patients with internal carotid occlusion, 8 mm Hg in the patients with stenosis, and not at all in the normal subjects. Skin blood pressure measured on the arm was in all groups 10 to 20 mm Hg higher than the diastolic arm blood pressure. It is emphasized that this method, as well as other methods using extracerebral registration in an attempt to evaluate the intracerebral arteries, is interesting from a hemodynamic point of view, but is of less diagnostic value in the single patient when compared to the arteriographical investigation.