Significance of absent ankle pulse

Abstract

The great observer error in the detection of the posterior tibial and dorsalis pedis pulses is demonstrated. In the limbs of subjects under the age of 20, on the average a single observer failed to detect 0.24% of posterior tibial pulses and 8.7% of dorsalis pedis pulses. In patients not presenting primarily with atherosclerosis the lack of significance of inability to detect the dorsalis pedis pulse is shown. Evidence is produced that if three independent observers are unable to detect the posterior tibial pulse there is a high degree of probability that an abnormality is present. © 1962, British Medical Journal Publishing Group. All rights reserved.