Popliteal Artery Entrapment

A vascular specialist is the type of healthcare provider who can best diagnose PAES. They’ll do a physical exam that includes checking the pulse in your foot and your popliteal artery. They also may look at changes in your pulses when pushing your foot up and down against resistance.

If you have popliteal artery entrapment syndrome, your provider:

• May be able to feel your pulses while you’re resting.
• May have a harder time detecting your pulses when you exercise, flex or extend your foot.

How do you test for popliteal artery entrapment syndrome?

Diagnostic tests measure blood flow through your knee, leg and foot. Imaging can show:

• Normal artery.
• An ulcer forming in your artery.
• Blood clots.
• Aneurysm of your artery (dilation of the blood vessel to more than 50% of normal size).
• Muscle compressing your artery.

Tests may include:

• Ankle-brachial index with exercise: This test measures the blood pressures in your arms and legs before and after exercise. Normally, your blood pressure is the same in your arms and legs and both rise with exercise. When running causes a spasm in your arteries, leg blood pressures drop after exercise to less than 90% of the arm pressures.
• Duplex ultrasound of the popliteal artery with plantar flexion: This test uses sound waves to image your artery and measure blood flow. It allows your provider to look at the arteries of your leg with plantar flexion and at rest to see muscle compression.
• Computed tomographic angiography (CTA) with plantar flexion: This is a type of CT scan that uses dye to look at your leg arteries with plantar flexion and at rest to see muscle compression.
• Magnetic resonance angiography (MRA) with plantar flexion: This test uses a magnetic field and pulses of radio wave energy to look at your leg arteries with plantar flexion and at rest to see muscle compression.