title: Compliance with dietary guidelines affects capillary recruitment in healthy middle-aged men and women.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Healthy microcirculation is important to maintain the health of tissues and organs, most notably the heart, kidney and retina. Single components of the diet such as salt, lipids and polyphenols may influence microcirculation, but the effects of dietary patterns that are consistent with current dietary guidelines are uncertain. It was hypothesized that compliance to UK dietary guidelines would have a favourable effect on skin capillary density/recruitment compared with a traditional British diet (control diet).
  
  
  METHODS
  A 12-week randomized controlled trial in men and women aged 40-70 years was used to test whether skin microcirculation, measured by skin video-capillaroscopy on the dorsum of the finger, influenced functional capillary density (number of capillaries perfused under basal conditions), structural capillary density (number of anatomical capillaries perfused during finger cuff inflation) and capillary recruitment (percentage difference between structural and functional capillary density).
  
  
  RESULTS
  Microvascular measures were available for 137 subjects out of the 165 participants randomized to treatment. There was evidence of compliance to the dietary intervention, and participants randomized to follow dietary guidelines showed significant falls in resting supine systolic, diastolic and mean arterial pressure of 3.5, 2.6 and 2.9 mmHg compared to the control diet. There was no evidence of differences in capillary density, but capillary recruitment was 3.5 % (95 % CI 0.2, 6.9) greater (P = 0.04) on dietary guidelines compared with control.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Adherence to dietary guidelines may help maintain a healthy microcirculation in middle-aged men and women. This study is registered at www.isrctn.com as ISRCTN92382106.
authors.affiliation: Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, 4.108 Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: Virginia
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Govoni
authors.affiliation: Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, 4.108 Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: Thomas A B
authors.initials: TAB
authors.lastname: Sanders
authors.affiliation: Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, 4.108 Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: Dianne P
authors.initials: DP
authors.lastname: Reidlinger
authors.affiliation: Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, 4.108 Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: Julia
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Darzi
authors.affiliation: Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, 4.108 Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: Sarah E E
authors.initials: SEE
authors.lastname: Berry
authors.affiliation: Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, 4.108 Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, UK.
authors.forename: Louise M
authors.initials: LM
authors.lastname: Goff
authors.affiliation: Women's Health Division, King's College London, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Paul T
authors.initials: PT
authors.lastname: Seed
authors.affiliation: British Heart Foundation Centre, School of Medicine, King's College London, St Thomas' Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Philip J
authors.initials: PJ
authors.lastname: Chowienczyk
authors.affiliation: Diabetes and Nutritional Sciences Division, Faculty of Life Sciences and Medicine, King's College London, 4.108 Franklin-Wilkins Building, 150 Stamford Street, London, SE1 9NH, UK. wendy.hall@kcl.ac.uk.
authors.forename: Wendy L
authors.initials: WL
authors.lastname: Hall
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D015992:Body Mass Index; D002196:Capillaries / Q000502:physiology*; D004032:Diet; D015930:Diet Records; D023381:Endpoint Determination; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008833:Microcirculation; D020678:Microscopic Angioscopy; D008875:Middle Aged; D018673:Nutrition Policy; D010349:Patient Compliance; D012867:Skin / Q000098:blood supply*
keywords: Blood pressure; Capillaroscopy; Cardiovascular disease; Dietary guidelines; Microcirculation; Randomized controlled trial