Stenosis or complete occlusion of the iliac artery is extremely rare in long-distance runners. When pain in the thigh and buttocks develops, the diagnosis of arterial occlusive disease is often delayed in these patients, for degenerative changes in the skeletal and muscle system are more prevalent.
Herein the authors present the case of a young female long-distance runner in whom the external iliac artery became occluded at the end of a 100 km course, although claudication had developed one year before. The temporal relationship between the onset of claudication and the complete arterial occlusion at the end of the last race may give further insight into the underlying pathological mechanism.
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