Note 2 — Chapter V · GANGRENE.

Intermittent claudication, when recognized, may be regarded as a precursor of that arteriosclerosis which may proceed to gangrene. The term implies temporary anemia of one or more of the extremities, with numbness, burning, or prickling sensations in the skin, occasional cramps in the muscles, with loss of power, tenderness of the nerve trunks, weakening or loss of pulse in the affected part. When these symptoms occur in the feet they are not infrequently followed by terminal gangrene or other evidences of angioneurotic necrosis, including even those forms known as erythromelalgia and Raynaud’s disease. Its treatment, of course, is relaxation of vasomotor spasm, best accomplished by the use of the nitrites, among which nitroglycerin is perhaps most valuable.