Simultaneous assessment of postocclusive flow-mediated vasodilatation in three vascular beds

Endothelial function has shown to be strongly associated with cardiovascular risk. In the study, postocclusive flow-mediated vasodilatation (FMD) was measured and used to assess the endothelial function in three different vascular beds. Twenty-six healthy volunteers were recruited in the study and asked to undertake a 3-minute occlusion of left brachial arteries. Result analysis showed that FMD of radial arteries with the pneumatic oscillometry was found to be significantly greater than that of small arteries together with microvessels in fingers with the photo-plethysmography (122 ± 61 versus 87 ± 56, p = 0.02). Besides, FMD of skin microcirculation in fingers with the laser Doppler flowmetry was calculated to be 118 ± 68, with no significant level as compared with radial arterial FMD. Due to a smaller coefficient of variations, the oscillometric technique proposed may become an alternative for evaluating endothelial function of peripheral arteries.