Assessment of the endothelial function with changed volume of brachial artery by menstrual cycle.
BACKGROUND
The endothelial function has been proven to be an important factor in the pathogenesis of atherosclerosis, hypertension and heart failure. The flow-mediated vasodilation (FMD) of the peripheral artery is an endothelium-dependent function. Brachial-artery ultrasound scanning is the popular method for evaluating FMD. However, good technical training on ultrasonography is required for the user to obtain high-quality data. Therefore, the goal of this study was to propose a new method which only used a sphygmomanometer cuff to occlude the blood flow and record the vascular volume waveform (Vwave).


RESULTS
We used this method to assess the FMD in the menstrual cycle for 26 volunteer females. All female subjects were evaluated two times (M: menstrual phase; F: luteal phase) in one menstrual cycle and for two cycles. In the first cycle, the FMD volume ratio in M was 101.9 ± 45.5 % and was higher in L, at 137.5 ± 62.1 % (p = 0.0032 versus M). In the second cycle, the FMD volume ratios in M and L were 91.4 ± 37.0 % and 124.0 ± 56.4 %, respectively (p < 0.001 vs. M).


CONCLUSIONS
Our results have confirmed those results in the study of Hametner et al. Blood pressure measurement and FMD assessment all used the same mechanic of digital blood pressure monitor, which makes our method suitable using at home.
Department of Computer Science and Information Engineering, Chaoyang University of Technology, Taichung, Taiwan.
Shing-Hong
SH
Liu
Department of Biomedical Engineering, I-Shou University, Kaohsiung, Taiwan.
Jia-Jung
JJ
Wang
Department of Biomedical Imaging and Radiological Science, China Medical University, 91, Xueshi Road, Hsueh-Shih Road, Taichung, 40402, Taiwan. dccheng@mail.cmu.edu.tw.
Da-Chuan
DC
Cheng
Institute of Medicine, School of Medicine, Chung-Shan Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan. antrouble@gmail.com.|Department of Internal Medicine, Chung-Shan Medical University Hospital, No.110, Sec.1, Jianguo N. Rd., Taichung, 40201, Taiwan. antrouble@gmail.com.
Chun-Hung
CH
Su
Department of Cardiology, Lin-Shin Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan.
Tzu-Hsin
TH
Lin
D000328:Adult; D001916:Brachial Artery / Q000033:anatomy & histology* / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology*; D004730:Endothelium, Vascular / Q000166:cytology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008183:Luteal Phase / Q000502:physiology; D008597:Menstrual Cycle / Q000502:physiology*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009929:Organ Size; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D055815:Young Adult
Endothelial function; Flow-mediated vasodilation; Ultrasonography