Temporal pattern of pulse wave velocity during brachial hyperemia reactivity

Endothelial function can be assessed non-invasively with ultrasound, analyzing the change of brachial diameter in response to transient forearm ischemia. We propose a new technique based in the same principle, but analyzing a continuous recording of carotid-radial pulse wave velocity (PWV) instead of diameter. PWV was measured on 10 healthy subjects of 22±2 years before and after 5 minutes forearm occlusion. After 59 ± 31 seconds of cuff release PWV decreased 21 ± 9% compared to baseline, reestablishing the same after 533 ± 65 seconds. There were no significant changes observed in blood pressure. When repeating the study one hour later in 5 subjects, we obtained a coefficient of repeatability of 4.8%. In conclusion, through analysis of beat to beat carotid-radial PWV it was possible to characterize the temporal profiles and analyze the acute changes in response to a reactive hyperemia. The results show that the technique has a high sensitivity and repeatability.