Intermittent claudication is caused by pain from an ischaemic muscle. Local tissue ischaemia is most often the result of an impairment of regional blood flow which is not a disease in itself but merely an event of a larger underlying disease which has to be searched for. Many conditions may induce complaints and clinical symptoms which simulate intermittent claudication but are of completely different origin. These conditions have been grouped in orthopaedic, neurologic, muscular, haematologic and metabolic disorders and were reviewed.