Using the slit-catheter method, the pressure of the anterior tibial
compartment was studied in thirty volunteers, whose ages ranged from
seventeen to eighty-five years, at rest and during and after exercise. The
average resting pressure was +5.1 millimeters of mercury. There was a wide
variation between subjects, although 95 per cent of them had a resting
pressure of less than twelve millimeters of mercury. This pressure was not
consistently or significantly affected by age. The pressure increased with
exercise, but in an average of 3.4 minutes after the exercise was stopped
it returned to within one millimeter of mercury of the resting pressure.
The resting pressure was also found to be affected by the positions of the
lower extremity and the trunk during measurement. To reduce this effect, it
is recommended that for measurement of pressure in the lower extremity the
patient should be lying supine and the big toe should be pointing
vertically upward.