Acute and subacute effect of rheopheresis on microvascular endothelial function in patients suffering from age-related macular degeneration.

This study was performed on seven patients affected by the atrophic form of age-related macular degeneration (AF-ARMD). The patients under investigation belonged to a larger study aimed at evaluating the efficacy of rheopheresis treatment (RT) on the visual function of AF-ARMD patients. Following the protocol of the larger study, patients received RT twice a week, every two weeks, for a total of ten treatments, as well as high-dose supplementation with zinc and vitamins A, E and beta-carotene.

Skin vasodilator effect of exogenous urotensin-II in hypertensives not exposed to antihypertensive medication.

To investigate the effect of urotensin-II (U-II) on skin vascular tone in normotensive subjects and in patients with essential arterial hypertension (EHT), forearm skin blood flux and skin blood flowmotion (SBF) response to U-II cathodal iontophoresis was investigated using laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) and spectral Fourier analysis in 10 young normotensive subjects, before and after intra-dermal injection of the nitric oxide synthetase inhibitor N(G)-monometil-l-arginine (L-NMMA). Forearm skin blood flux response to U-II cathodal iontophoresis was also investigated using LDF in 15 newly diagnosed EHT patients, in 15 long-standing EHT patients and in 15 age- and sex-matched normotensive subjects. Intra-dermal injection of L-NMMA significantly blunted the increase in skin blood flux (from 342.

Blunted post-ischemic increase of the endothelial skin blood flowmotion component as early sign of endothelial dysfunction in chronic kidney disease patients.

With the aim to investigate microvascular endothelial function in chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients on conservative treatment, skin blood flowmotion (SBF) was explored by spectral Fourier analysis of skin forearm laser Doppler tracing, registered before and following forearm ischemia in 32 III to V stage CKD patients (23 males, mean age: 52+/-12 years), without diabetes or cardiovascular disease, and in 32 age and sex matched healthy subjects. The power spectral density (PSD) of the 0.009-1.

Spectral analysis of laser Doppler skin blood flow oscillations in human essential arterial hypertension.

The aim of this study was to investigate whether human essential arterial hypertension (EHT) is associated with modification of the skin blood flowmotion (SBF), which could be a sign of skin microcirculatory impairment. Forearm skin perfusion was measured by laser Doppler flowmetry (LDF) in conventional perfusion units (PU) before and after ischemia in 20 middle-age newly diagnosed EHT untreated patients, in 20 middle-age long standing EHT treated patients and in 30 age and sex matched healthy normotensive subjects (NS). Power spectral density (PSD) of SBF total spectrum (0.