Establishment of novel evaluation methods to measure endothelial functions as a clinical pharmacological tool

以反应性充血(RHE)检测内皮功能的评价方法有助于发现动脉粥样硬化改变的早期阶段。动脉粥样硬化性改变，如外周动脉疾病，在腿部比手臂多见，然而，目前使用超声仪(FMD)或外周眼压计(Endoat)评估内皮功能的方法仅限于‘手臂’RHE，因为测量‘腿’RHE存在技术困难。本研究建立了一种利用近红外时间分辨光谱(NIRTRS)测量腿部RHE的新方法。在NIRTRS测量的手臂RHE中，20岁、50岁和70岁男性组之间的RHE模式没有差异，但50岁和70岁男性组的腿部RHE模式低于20岁男性组。因此，NIRTRS测定的小腿RHE可作为检测衰老早期血管功能变化和评价药物对血管功能变化影响的生物标志物。

The evaluation method using reactive hyperemia (RHE) to measure endothelial function is useful for detecting the early phase of atherosclerotic changes. Atherosclerotic changes like peripheral arterial disease are found much more in legs than in arms, however, the current methods for evaluating endothelial function with ultrasound graph (FMD) or peripheral tonometry (EndoPAT) are limited to ‘arm’ RHE due to technical difficulties in measuring ‘leg’ RHE. The present study established a novel method to measure ‘leg’ RHE by using a near-infrared time-resolved spectroscopy (NIRTRS). In arm RHE measured by NIRTRS, there was no difference of RHE patterns among 20s, 50s and 70s men groups, however the leg RHE patterns of 50s and 70s men groups were lower than that of 20s men group. Thus, the leg RHE measured by NIRTRS could be a biomarker for detecting the early phase of aging changes in vascular function and evaluating drug effectson the vascular functional changes.