title: Differences in the skin-surface laser Doppler signals between polycystic ovary syndrome and normal subjects.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Women with PCOS may present abnormal hemodynamic alterations and thus may develop vascular damage. This study performed LDF measurements on the skin surface around the leg to verify if beat-to-beat waveform and spectral analysis can help to discriminate the MBF characteristics between PCOS and healthy subjects.
  
  
  METHODS
  ECG and LDF signals were obtained noninvasively in PCOS (n = 16) and control (n = 8) subjects. Beat-to-beat waveform and spectral analysis was performed on the LDF signals to obtain the AD, FDT, FRT, and REC of five frequency bands.
  
  
  RESULTS
  FRT was significantly larger, AD was significantly smaller, REC of the myogenic-related band was significantly smaller and REC of the heartbeat-related band was significantly larger in the PCOS than in the control subjects.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This study is the first to reveal that time-domain waveform and spectral analysis performed on skin-surface LDF signals can be used to discriminate the differences in the MBF perfusion condition and the microcirculatory regulatory activities at local vascular beds between PCOS and healthy subjects. These findings may aid the noninvasive early detection of PCOS-induced vascular damage.
authors.affiliation: Graduate Institute of Biomedical Engineering, National Taiwan University of Science and Technology, Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Hsin
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Hsiu
authors.forename: Wei-Chen
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Yi-Fan
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.forename: Chia-Liang
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Hsu
authors.forename: Chih-Yu
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Chen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005260:Female; D006439:Hemodynamics; D006801:Humans; D017078:Laser-Doppler Flowmetry / Q000379:methods*; D011085:Polycystic Ovary Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012867:Skin / Q000098:blood supply / Q000503:physiopathology
keywords: blood flow; laser Doppler; microcirculation; polycystic ovary syndrome