Phase coherence of 0.1 Hz microvascular tone oscillations during the local heating

Abstract

The origin of the mechanisms of blood flow oscillations at low frequencies is discussed. It is known that even isolated arteriole demonstrates oscillations with the frequency close to 0.1 Hz, which is caused by the synchronous activity of myocyte cells. On the other hand, oscillations with close frequency are found in the heart rate, which are associated with quite different mechanism. The main purpose of this work is to study phase coherence of the blood flow oscillations in the peripheral vessels under basal and perturbed conditions. Local heating which locally influences the microvascular tone, as one of currently elucidated in sufficient detail physiological test, was chosen. During such provocation blood flow though the small vessels significantly increases because of vasodilation induced by the local synthesis of nitric oxide. In the first part of the paper microvascular response to the local test is quantified in healthy and pathological conditions of diabetes mellitus type 1. It is obtained that regardless of the pathology, subjects with high basal perfusion had lower reserve for vasodilation, which can be caused by the low elasticity of microvascular structure. Further synchronization of pulsations of the heated and undisturbed skin was evaluated on the base of wavelet phase coherency analysis. Being highly synchronised in basal conditions 0.1 Hz pulsations became more independent during heating, especially during NO-mediated vasodilation.