Effects of mechanical pumping on the arterial pulse wave velocity: peripheral artery and micro-vessels

We studied the effect of mechanical pumping on the response of peripheral arteries by focusing on the pulse wave velocity (PWV) in large arterial conduit and micro-vessels. The pressure waveforms were measured simultaneously at the brachial artery (BA), radial artery (RA) and finger. Impulse pumping was operated by alternatively adding 80 mmHg pressure to the arm of normal subjects (N=10) in 3 seconds and relaxing to 0 mmHg in 7 seconds for a period of 15 minutes. After pumping the segmental arterial PWV from BA to finger decreases due to the action of the change in endothelial relaxing factor. However, we find the decrease in PWV from BA to finger after pumping was contributed from the results of BA-RA, the PWV for the micro-vessels (BA-finger) on the contrary was increased.