Relationship between brachial and popliteal artery low-flow-mediated constriction in older adults: impact of aerobic fitness on vascular endothelial function

We previously observed that brachial artery (BA) low-flow-mediated constriction (L-FMC) is inversely related to aerobic fitness (i.e., V̇o 2peak ) in older adults (OA). However, it is unclear if an L-FMC response is elicited in the popliteal artery (POP) or if a similar inverse relationship with aerobic fitness exists. Considering that the POP experiences larger shear stress fluctuations during sedentary behaviors and traditional lower limb modes of aerobic exercise, we tested the hypotheses that 1) heterogeneous L-FMC responses exist between the BA versus POP of OA, and 2) that aerobic fitness will be inversely related to POP L-FMC. L-FMC was assessed in 47 healthy OA (30 women, 67 ± 5 yr) using duplex ultrasonography and quantified as the percent decrease in diameter (from baseline) during the last 30 s of a 5-min distal cuff occlusion period. When allometrically scaled to baseline diameter, the BA exhibited a greater L-FMC response than the POP (–1.3 ± 1.6 vs. –0.4 ± 1.6%; P = 0.03). Furthermore, L-FMC responses in the BA and POP were not correlated ( r = 0.22; P = 0.14). V̇o 2peak was strongly correlated to POP L-FMC ( r = –0.73; P < 0.001). The heterogeneous BA versus POP L-FMC data indicate that upper limb L-FMC responses do not represent a systemic measure of endothelial-dependent vasoconstrictor capacity in OA. The strong association between V̇o 2peak and POP L-FMC suggests that localized shear stress patterns, perhaps induced by lower limb dominant modes of aerobic exercise, may result in greater vasoconstrictor responsiveness in healthy OA. NEW & NOTEWORTHY We compared low-flow-mediated constriction responses between the brachial and popliteal arteries of healthy older adults. Vasoconstrictor responses were not correlated between arteries. A strong relationship between aerobic fitness and low-flow-mediated vasoconstriction was observed in the popliteal artery. These findings suggest that brachial vasoconstrictor responsiveness is not reflective of the popliteal artery, which is exposed to larger shear stress fluctuations during bouts of sedentary behavior and traditional lower limb modes of exercise.