Presented in the review is the data concerning contemporary criteria for assessing the degree of chronic lower limb ischaemia and quality of the treatment performed. Problems regarding objectivization of the degree of an ischaemic lesion of an extremity and assessment of quality of conservative treatment still remain unresolved. Currently, in the world practice along with instrumental methods (assessment of the ankle-brachial index) subjective criteria are mainly employed: assessment of pain-free walking distance or maximum distance walked. In order to work out appropriate regiments of conservative treatment and compare efficacy of various drugs for treatment of chronic lower limb ischaemia and, in particular, intermittent claudication, it is necessary to use objective criteria. Detailed consideration is hence given to the possibilities of using morphological, biochemical and histological criteria such as determination of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) in peripheral blood and determination of apoptosis markers (BNIP3) and hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF-1) in a biopsy sample of the gastrocnemius muscle of the ischaemized extremity.