Claudication is a medical term usually referring to impairment in walking, or pain, discomfort, numbness, or tiredness in the legs that occurs during walking or standing and is relieved by rest. The perceived level of pain from claudication can be mild to extremely severe. Claudication is most common in the calves but it can also affect the feet, thighs, hips, buttocks, or arms. The word claudication comes from the Latin claudicare meaning to limp. Claudication that appears after a short amount of walking may sometimes be described by US medical professionals by the number of typical city street blocks that the patient can walk before the onset of claudication. Thus, "one-block claudication" appears after walking one block, "two-block claudication" appears after walking two blocks, etc. The term block would be understood more exactly locally but is on the order of 100 metres. Types
Intermittent vascular
Intermittent vascular (or arterial) claudication (Latin: claudicatio intermittens) most often refers to cramping pains in the buttock or leg muscles, especially the calves. It is caused by poor circulation of the blood to the affected area, called peripheral arterial disease. The poor blood flow is often a result of atherosclerotic blockages more proximal to the affected area; individuals with intermittent claudication may have diabetes — often undiagnosed. Another cause, or exacerbating factor, is excessive sitting (several hours), especially in the absence of reasonable breaks, along with a general lack of walking or other exercise that stimulates the legs.
There are four longitudinal collection canals, two dorso-lateral and two ventro-lateral, running along the length of the worm, with a transverse canal linking the ventral ones at the posterior of each segment. When the proglottids begin to detach, these canals open to the exterior through the terminal segment.The main nerve centre of a cestode is a cerebral ganglion in its scolex. Nerves emanate from the ganglion to supply the general body muscular and sensory endings, with two lateral nerve cords running the length of the strobila. The cirrus and vagina are innervated, and sensory endings around the genital pore are more plentiful than in other areas. Sensory function includes both tactoreception (touch) and chemoreception (smell or taste). Proglottids
Once anchored to the hosts intestinal wall, tapeworms absorb nutrients through their surface as their food flows past them. Cestodes are unable to synthesise lipids, which they use for reproduction, and are therefore entirely dependent on their hosts.The tapeworm body is composed of a series of segments called proglottids. These are produced from the neck by mitotic growth, which is followed by transverse constriction. The segments become larger and more mature as they are displaced backwards by newer segments. Each proglottid contains an independent reproductive tract, and like some other flatworms, cestodes excrete waste through flame cells (protonephridia) located in the proglottids. The sum of the proglottids is called a strobila, which is thin and resembles a strip of tape; from this is derived the common name "tapeworm".