Differences in Calf Circumference as Diagnostic Guide to Thrombophlebitis

Since thrombophlebitis may provide a source of potentially fatal pulmonary emboli or may herald occult malignant conditions, its early detection can be lifesaving. As White1recently emphasized, We must everlastingly [look to] the leg veins in pulmonary embolism; the diagnosis can only be decided clinically.2It is generally agreed that calf measurement is an important diagnostic procedure. Although mensuration is but one of several criteria for establishing the diagnosis, it occasionally becomes crucial, for example, when the presence or degree of swelling is questionable or leg and chest pain have recently occurred. In the latter, the patient may be afebrile; physical examination shows only a difference between the two calf girths, and laboratory data and chest roentgenogram interpretation are equivocal. The frequency of such cases on the medical service of a general hospital has directed attention to the significance of difference in calf circumference. In neuromuscular diseases and