Premium
Inspiration‐induced vasoconstrictive responses in dominant versus non‐dominant hands
Author(s) -
Mayrovitz Harvey N.,
Groseclose Edye E.
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
clinical physiology and functional imaging
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.608
H-Index - 67
eISSN - 1475-097X
pISSN - 1475-0961
DOI - 10.1111/j.1475-097x.2004.00592.x
Subject(s) - medicine , neurovascular bundle , vasoconstriction , laser doppler velocimetry , microcirculation , perfusion , blood flow , concomitant , vasodilation , analysis of variance , dorsum , upper limb , cardiology , anatomy , anesthesia
Summary Single rapid and deep inspirations (inspiratory gasps, IG) result in arteriolar vasoconstriction with concomitant transient decreases in skin blood flow that are most prominent in fingers and toes. Vascular responses (inspiratory gasp responses, IGR) are determined as the maximum percentage reduction in blood flow and have been used to assess sympathetic neurovascular function in several conditions. Previous studies have described various features of the response but there has been no reported systematic investigation of the degree of similarity between IGR obtained on dominant and non‐dominant hands. This aspect is important in procedures that may use IGR to evaluate suspected unilateral sympathetic dysfunction of a limb‐pair or to test the effectiveness of physiological interventions imposed on a single limb of a pair. Thus, the goal of our study was to compare IGR magnitudes that were simultaneously determined in paired‐fingers of dominant and non‐dominant hands. In 30 healthy seated subjects, skin blood perfusion via laser‐Doppler (SBF) was measured on the dorsum of the middle finger of both hands while subjects performed three sequential IG at 3‐min intervals. Analysis of variance for repeated measures revealed no significant difference in IGR between dominant (79·3 ± 11·2%) and non‐dominant hands (81·9 ± 11·6%, P = 0·965) with an overall IGR of 80·6 ± 11·4%. These results indicate that hand‐dominance is not a factor that is likely to significantly effect IGR differentials determined in paired‐limbs.