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Noninvasive measure of microvascular nitric oxide function in humans using Very low frequency cutaneous laser Doppler flow spectra.
Author(s) -
Stewart Julian Mark,
Taneja Indu,
Medow Marvin Scott,
Goligorsky Michael
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
the faseb journal
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.709
H-Index - 277
eISSN - 1530-6860
pISSN - 0892-6638
DOI - 10.1096/fasebj.21.6.a1297-c
Subject(s) - laser doppler velocimetry , nitric oxide , chemistry , doppler effect , very low frequency , blood flow , cholinergic , acetylcholine , microdialysis , medicine , physics , astronomy , central nervous system
While higher frequency oscillations (0.021‐0.6 Hz) in cutaneous blood flow measured by laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) relate to oscillations in blood pressure and sympathetic nerve activity, very low frequency oscillations (0.0095‐0.021Hz, VLF) do not. We investigated whether VLF LDF power is nitric oxide (NO) specific. We used LDF combined with intradermal microdialysis in the calves of 22 healthy volunteers aged 19‐27 years. LDF power spectral analysis was performed by windowed fast Fourier transform. We tested whether the NO synthesis inhibitor nitro‐L‐arginine (NLA) produced selective decreases in VLF power before and after stimulation with acetylcholine. NLA alone did not alter total power but selectively reduced VLF power by approximately 50%. LDF and spectral power increased markedly across all spectra with acetylcholine. This increase was blunted by NLA which selectively reduced VLF power by approximately 50%. The data suggest that VLF oscillations in the laser Doppler signal are NO dependent, increase with cholinergic stimulation, and have potential as a noninvasive marker for NO‐dependent microvascular reactivity.