[Venous pathomorphology in occlusive lesions of the arteries of the lower extremities].
The study was performed of 80 low extremities amputated because of gangrene related to atherosclerosis (28 cases) or obliterating thromboangiitis (52 cases). Two types of vein histological changes were established: 1) changes similar to those in arteries as in the thromboangiitis 2) adaptive-compensatory changes resulting from haemodynamics disturbances as in atherosclerosis. A great number of arteriovenous anastomoses, vein wall hypertrophy with the change of their calibre were observed. Hypertrophy of the muscle layer and dilatation of the vein lumen are found in cases with long duration of the process. The differences in vein morphology in the above diseases, apart from etiology, are due to the fact that in obliterating thromboangiitis the process starts in the peripheral vessels while in atherosclerosis it begins in large arteries and the vein alterations develop at late stages. The vein alterations may serve as the differential diagnostic index in these diseases.