Radiation of anginal pain to the legs.
Pain radiated from the chest to one or both legs (17 cases), or from the legs to the chest (two cases) in 19 patients with angina or acute myocardial infarction. The leg pain was assumed to be related to the angina pectoris when both were of a similar character and occurred together, when the leg pain occurred at rest, and when there were normal peripheral pulses in the leg. Pain was felt in the left leg by 10 patients, the right leg by two patients, and in both legs by seven. Three patients experienced pain in the thigh(s), six in the shin(s), and 10 had pain in both. In six patients the pain extended down to the inner two to four toes. The pain was always felt in front of the legs. This distribution accords with the suggestion that some sensory cardiac nerve fibres occur in the lumbar sympathetic ganglia and that pain is projected into the corresponding dermatomes.