Potent stimulation of blood flow in fingers of volunteers after local short-term treatment with low-frequency magnetic fields from a novel device.

A novel hand-held low-frequency magnetic stimulator (MagCell-SR) was tested for its ability to stimulate microcirculation in fingers of healthy volunteers. Blood flow during and after 5 minutes exposure was quantified using Laser Doppler Perfusion Imaging Technique. The device was positioned between the wrist and the dorsal part of the backhand. Because the increase in blood flow could be caused by a release of nitric oxide (NO) from the vascular endothelial cells we tested NO production with a fluorescence marker and quantified the measurements in cell cultures of human umbilical endothelial cells (HUVEC). Exposure increased blood flow significantly, persisted several minutes, and then disappeared gradually. In order to assess the effect of a static magnetic field, the measurements were also carried out with the device shutoff. Here, only a small increase in blood flow was noted. The application of the rotating MagCell-SR to the HUVEC cultures leads to a rapid onset and a significant increase of NO release after 15 minutes. Thus, frequencies between 4 and 12 Hz supplied by the device improve microcirculation significantly. Therefore, this device can be used in all clinical situations where an improvement of the microcirculation is useful like in chronic wound healing deficits.