Reactive hyperemia unmasks reduced compliance of cutaneous arteries in essential hypertension. Heron, Emmanuel, Denis Chemla, Jean-Louis Megnien, Jean-Claude Pourny, I Jaime Levenson, Yves Lecarpentier, Alain Simon. Centre de M[acute]edecine Pr[acute]eventive Cardiovasculaire-INSERM U28, H[circumflex]opital Broussais, Paris, INSERM U275, L.O.A.-ENSTA -Ecole Polytechnique, Palaiseau, and Service de Physiologie Cardio -Respiratoire, CHU Bic[circumflex]etre, France
APStracts 2:0138A, 1995.
To evaluate changes in distal cutaneous arteries during hypertension, we used a non invasive method to assess the compliance and vascular resistance of the hand radial arteries, mainly distributed to the skin, in 10 normotensive (NT) and 10 hypertensive (HT) men. Radial artery diameter and blood velocity were measured by means of pulsed Doppler, concomitantly with measurements of finger arterial pressure by photoplethysmography. Hand radial vascular resistance was calculated as the ratio of mean arterial pressure to mean radial blood flow. A simple resistive-capacitive model of large and small arteries of the hand allowed us to evaluate arterial compliance from the exponential slope of finger diastolic pressure decay and vascular resistance. Measurements were made at baseline and during reactive hyperemia after 5 min of complete occlusion of the brachial artery with a pneumatic cuff. Except for pressure, there were no baseline differences between the groups. In NT and HT subjects, hyperemia increased radial artery diameter and blood velocity (p<0.001) and compliance (p<0.01, p<0.05) and decreased mean pressure (p<0.01, p<0.001) and resistance (p<0.001). During hyperemia, the only difference between the groups, except for pressure, was lower compliance in hypertensives (p<0.01). Moreover, compliance during hyperemia negatively correlated with baseline mean pressure (p=0.001). Thus, hyperemia unmasked reduced compliance in the hypertensive patients but did not show abnormal resistance, suggesting that the elastic properties of the hand skin radial arteries might be more sensitive than their resistive properties to high blood pressure. 

Received 15 July 1994; accepted in final form 21 March 1995.
APS Manuscript Number A711-4.
Article publication pending Journal of Applied Physiology.
ISSN 1080-4757 Copyright 1995 The American Physiological Society.
Published in APStracts on 10 April 1995.