Posted By:
Steve Parcell
Category:
General
Endothelial Function Testing Steve Parcell, ND Endothelial function testing is an exciting new noninvasive approach to assessing the health of blood vessels. This test was primarily used at research centres untill now. The endothelium is the layer of cells on the artery wall that come into contact with the blood. There are several ways to assess endothelial function; most involve testing the endothelium’s ability to relax the vessel wall or to make the vessel wall more compliant (flexible). The test is easy and non invasive. Here’s how it works: When blood flow increases through a vessel with a healthy endothelium, the vessel opens up wider to accommodate the increase. You can see this flowmediated vasodilatation, as it’s called, by using ultra sound. To do the test we place a blood pressure cuff around the wrist and inflate it to a pressure high enough to cut off blood flow to the hand. After five minutes, we release the cuff and the blood rushes back to the hand. This sudden increase in blood flow stimulates the endothelium to make NO (nitric oxide) and in response, the arm artery increases in diameter for a short period of time. We can see the vessel...