engleski

Reproducibility of post-occlusion reactive hyperaemia assessed by laser Doppler flowmetry in young healthy women

Aims: The aim of this study was to assess the interday reproducibility of post occlussive reactive hyperaemia (PORH) in young healthy female subjects. In addition, we looked for most reproducible form of data presentation. Methods: 10 healthy female medical students volunteered to participate in this study. Each subject was tested 4 times during 2 weeks in temperature-controlled room. Laser probe was applied on the same place of the forearm during every measurement. Blood flow was measured during baseline, vascular occlusion (1, 2 and 3 min) and post-occlusion reactive hyperaemia. Parameters studied were: increase in flow during reperfusion following vascular occlusion (R), difference between % of flow change during reperfusion and occlusion (delta R-O) in relation to baseline, time-to-peak (TtP) and latency time of the flow to go back to baseline levels (LT). Coefficient of variation (CV ; with 95% confidence interval) and interclass correlation coefficient (ICC ; with 95% confidence interval) were calculated for each parameter. CVs of ≤10%, 10–25% and ≥25% were considered good, moderate and poor reproducibility, respectively. An ICC value of <0.40, 0.40–0.75 and >0.75 considered as poor, fair-to-good and excellent reproducibility, respectively. Results: There were no statistically significant differences in blood pressure, pulse or skin temperature among subsequent measurements. None of the parameters showed significant differences across the measurements (using within-subject effect repeated measures of ANOVA). Obtained CVs for all parameters have shown moderate reproducibility (10-25%), except CV for TtP which was >25%. R-O was the most reproducible parameter of reactive hyperemia, indicated by the lowest CV and highest ICC (0.60), which is considered fair- to-good reproducibility. Conclusion: The results of this study suggest that parameter R-O is fair-to-good reproducible for LDF assessment of PORH in young healthy women and it can be a useful and reliable noninvasive clinical measurement index of microvascular function.

laser doppler flowmetry; reproducibility

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