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This Article Full Text Full Text (PDF) All Versions of this Article: 295/3/H1100    most recent 00318.2008v1 Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in PubMed Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Google Scholar Articles by Nishiyama, S. K. Articles by Richardson, R. S. PubMed PubMed Citation Articles by Nishiyama, S. K. Articles by Richardson, R. S.

Sex and limb-specific ischemic reperfusion and vascular reactivity

¹Department of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California; ²Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine and ³Department of Exercise and Sport Science, University of Utah and ⁴Geriatric Research Education and Clinical Center, Salt Lake City Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Salt Lake City, Utah; and ⁵Faculty of Medicine, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway

Submitted 26 March 2008 ; accepted in final form 3 July 2008

With little known regarding sex and limb heterogeneity, we investigated vascular reactivity and ischemic reperfusion (IR) in the upper and lower extremities of 15 healthy men (26 ± 2 yr) and women (23 ± 1 yr). Doppler ultrasound was used to evaluate IR and flow-mediated dilation (FMD) after suprasystolic cuff occlusion in both the arm [brachial artery (BA)] and the leg [popliteal artery (PA)]. Cumulative IR [area under the curve (AUC)], normalized for muscle mass, revealed no sex-related differences in either limb (forearm: men 38 ± 3 and women 44 ± 4 ml/100 g; lower leg: men 12 ± 2 and women 14 ± 2 ml/100 g), while both groups revealed a greater IR per unit of arm muscle mass (AUC) compared with the lower leg (P < 0.05). The BA and PA were smaller in women (BA 0.31 ± 0.1, PA 0.47 ± 0.1 cm) than in men (BA 0.41 ± 0.1, PA 0.6 ± 0.2 cm). Absolute FMD/shear rate revealed attenuated vascular function in the PA of the women [women 3.3 ± 0.6, men 5.0 ± 0.8 (all x10^–6) cm/s^–1·s] and no sex difference in the BA [women 1.2 ± 0.2, men 1.6 ± 0.1 (all x10^–6) cm/s^–1·s]. In both sexes the PA demonstrated greater vascular reactivity than the BA. Thus vascular reactivity in healthy young people is greater in the legs, regardless of sex, and women have vascular function similar to men in the upper extremities but appear to have poorer vascular function normalized for shear rate in the lower extremities.

vasodilation; vascular function; hyperemia; females