Leriche syndrome missed diagnosis: a case report

The study showed a case of missed diagnosis of Leriche syndrome. Patients with intermittent claudication were diagnosed as lumbar spinal stenosis by local hospital with lumbar MRI. When conservative treatment was ineffective, the patients were treated in our spine clinic. However, the lumbar MRI showed no significant stenosis, and arteriovenous ultrasound also showed no abnormality. Vascular surgeons believed that patient’s symptoms had little correlation with vascular lesions. After careful reading of lumbar spine MRI, we found that the signal intensity of abdominal aorta increased unevenly below L2 vertebral level. CTA examination of abdominal aorta revealed sclerosis of abdominal aorta and common iliac artery, stenosis and occlusion of abdominal aorta and common iliac artery lumen below the level of renal artery orifice. The patient was finally diagnosed as Leriche syndrome.