Papers of the Week

Functional Popliteal Artery Entrapment Syndrome (fPAES) is an under-diagnosed and under-treated etiology of atypical claudication. Symptoms of fPAES include deep posterior muscle cramping and pain with exercise and unlike anatomic PAES, there are seldom vascular complications. Common non-invasive diagnostic modalities include Ankle Brachial Index (ABI), Arterial Duplex Ultrasound (DUS), and cross-sectional imaging such as Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA). Entrapment can be difficult to reproduce during diagnostic testing, requiring provocative maneuvers. Because we believed different provocative maneuvers provide different diagnostic efficacy, we sought to optimize our diagnostic approach to fPAES.