title: Assessment of regional blood flow and specific microvascular resistance in the foot by means of the transient thermal clearance method.
abstract: Measurements of skin blood flow have been made in a group of 34 patients presenting with symptoms of peripheral vascular disease. Of the patients, 18 were non-diabetic and the remainder diabetic. Measurements of blood flow were made using the transient thermal clearance method, and of systolic blood pressure in the dorsalis pedis artery using a CW ultrasonic Doppler blood velocimeter and an occluding cuff. There was no difference in pressure index between the two groups. Neither a linear pressure/flow relationship nor the presence of autoregulation was demonstrated. The derivation of specific vascular resistance (SVR) for the two groups shows that in the diabetic it was 7.07 +/- 2.2, while in the non-diabetic it was 11.12 +/- 3.9. The difference is significant (P less than 0.005) and suggests that measurement of SVR may be useful in the differential diagnosis of vascular disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Physics, Jerusalem College of Technology, Israel.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Nitzan
authors.forename: D E
authors.initials: DE
authors.lastname: Goss
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Chagne
authors.forename: V C
authors.initials: VC
authors.lastname: Roberts
mesh_terms: D001794:Blood Pressure; D003925:Diabetic Angiopathies / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D005528:Foot / Q000098:blood supply*; D006801:Humans; D007383:Intermittent Claudication / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D008833:Microcirculation / Q000503:physiopathology; D008875:Middle Aged; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D013696:Temperature; D014652:Vascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology*; D014655:Vascular Resistance