Flow-mediated dilatation of the brachial artery is a poorly reproducible indicator of microvascular function in Type I diabetes mellitus

BACKGROUND: Flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) of the brachial artery is commonly measured as a surrogate marker of endothelial function. Its measurement is, however, technically demanding and reports regarding its reproducibility have not always been favourable.

AIM: Two Type I diabetes and control group comparator studies were conducted to assess the reproducibility of FMD and to analyse blood flow data normally discarded during FMD measurement.

DESIGN: The studies were sequential and differed only with regard to operator and ultrasound machine. Seventy-two subjects with diabetes and 71 controls were studied in total.

METHODS: Subjects had FMD measured conventionally. Blood velocity waveforms were averaged over 10 pulses post forearm ischaemia and their component frequencies analysed using the wavelet transform, a mathematical tool for waveform analysis. The component frequencies were grouped into 11 bands to facilitate analysis.

RESULTS: Subjects were well-matched between studies. In Study 1, FMD was significantly impaired in subjects with Type I diabetes vs. controls (median 4.35%, interquartile range 3.10-4.80 vs. 6.50, 4.79-9.42, P < 0.001). No differences were detected between groups in Study 2, however. However, analysis of blood velocity waveforms yielded significant differences between groups in two frequency bands in each study.

CONCLUSION: This report highlights concerns over the reproducibility of FMD measures. Further work is required to fully elucidate the role of analysing velocity waveforms after forearm ischaemia.