Recovery of flow-mediated vasodilatation after repetitive measurements is involved in early vascular impairment: comparison with indices of vascular tone

PLoS One. 2014 Jan 2;9(1):e83977. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0083977. eCollection 2014.

Abstract

In repetitive measurements of flow-mediated dilatation (FMD), the duration of the interval between measurements remains controversial. In this pilot study, we conducted three sequential measurements of low-flow-mediated constriction (L-FMC), FMD and flow-mediated total dilation (FMTD; L-FMC+ FMD) at baseline and intervals of 15 and 60 min in 30 healthy males. FMD15, L-FMC15, and FMTD15 were significantly lower than the respective first measurements, but all indices showed full recovery at 60 min in all subjects. The baseline diameter was slightly increased at 15 min and restored at 60 min, but the maximum diameter, and the baseline and reactive flow velocity unchanged. We examined the relationship between recovery rate of FMTD at 15 min (FMTD-R) and cardio-ankle vascular index (CAVI). Univariate analysis showed moderate correlation between FMTD-R, and CAVI and L-FMC0. Patients were divided according to FMTD-R value; the low-FMTD-R group [below the median value (-26.2%)] included a significantly higher proportion of smokers and higher CAVI values than the high-FMTD-R group. The reproducibility of FMTD and FMTD-R was evaluated in another group of 25 healthy subjects. The range of variation across measurements was 1.1% for FMTD and 4.6% for FMTD-R; with intraclass correlation coefficients of 0.93 and 0.95, respectively. The present study demonstrated blunted recovery of FMD within 15 min, suggesting the need for selection of a more adequate interval between measurements to avoid underestimation of FMD in subsequent measurements. The findings demonstrated the reproducibility of FMTD-R and FMTD measurements, and that FMTD-R might be involved in arterial stiffness and early vascular impairment in the healthy subjects.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Adult
  • Blood Pressure
  • Brachial Artery / physiology
  • Healthy Volunteers
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Regional Blood Flow / physiology*
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Risk Factors
  • Shear Strength
  • Stress, Mechanical
  • Vasodilation / physiology*

Grants and funding

This work was supported by research grants from the Aichi Health Promotion Foundation (to KT), the SENSHIN Medical Research Foundation (to KT), and Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (Kakenhi 25461336 to KT). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.