Reproducibility of different methods to measure the endothelial function

Authors Tom Thomaes, Veronique Cornelissen, Peter Verhamme, Luc Vanhees, Kaatje Goetschalckx2, Steven Onkelinx
Published in Vascular Medicine
Publication date 2012
Research groups Lifestyle and Health
Type Article

Summary

Full text via link. This study compares the reliability and reproducibility of flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) and peripheral arterial tonometry (PAT) to assess endothelial function. Eighteen volunteers with coronary heart disease underwent simultaneous testing of FMD by means of brachial artery ultrasound scanning and PAT with the EndoPAT 2000. The subjects underwent both tests twice with an interval of 30 minutes and the same protocol was repeated 2 days later. The within-day variability was lower for the FMD measurements than for the PAT measurements (10% versus 18%; p < 0.05). The between-day variability was similar (11%). A significant correlation was found between PAT and FMD (r = 0.57, p < 0.001). The typical errors of measurements for FMD were lower than those for PAT. In conclusion, in this study, FMD demonstrated the best reliability for the within- and between-day and separate day measurements when compared to PAT.

Language English
Published in Vascular Medicine
Year and volume Volume 17 2
Page range 79-84

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