Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2005 Apr;91(4):553-8.
doi: 10.1136/hrt.2003.032847.

Evaluating endothelial function in humans: a guide to invasive and non-invasive techniques

D Tousoulis  1 , C Antoniades, C Stefanadis
Affiliations
Review

Evaluating endothelial function in humans: a guide to invasive and non-invasive techniques

D Tousoulis et al. Heart. 2005 Apr.
No abstract available

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Effects of different stimuli (physical or chemical) on vascular endothelium. Stimuli leading to vasorelaxation in the presence of intact vascular endothelium (such as acetylcholine), produce vasoconstriction when acting directly on the underlying smooth muscle cells, in vascular areas with injured endothelium. CPT, cold pressor stress test; EDHF, endothelium derived hyperpolarising factor; eNOS, endothelial nitric oxide synthase; GC, guanyl cyclase; L-NMMA, NG-monomethyl-L-arginine; MS, mental stress; NO, nitric oxide; SMC, smooth muscle cell.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Technical aspects of the non-invasive methods for evaluating endothelial function. Flow mediated dilation is evaluated by the use of high resolution ultrasound (left panel), while gauge-strain plethysmography evaluates the changes in forearm blood flow during reactive hyperaemia. EID, endothelium independent dilation; FBF, forearm blood flow; FMD, flow mediated dilation; GTN, glyceryl trinitrate; PC, personal computer; RH, reactive hyperaemia; U/S, high resolution ultrasound.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Timetable of flow mediated dilation (ultrasound technique, panel A) and gauge-strain plethysmography (panel B). FBF, forearm blood flow; FMD, flow mediated dilation.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Moncada S, Higgs A. The L-arginine-NO pathway. N Engl J Med 1993;329:2002–12. - PubMed
    1. Widlansky ME, Gokce N, Keaney JF, et al. The clinical implications of endothelial dysfunction. J Am Coll Cardiol 2003;42:1149–60. Excellent review suggesting that the severity of endothelial dysfunction relates to cardiovascular risk. It also evaluates the advantages and limitations of the methods to quantify endothelial function in humans. - PubMed
    1. Tousoulis D, Davies G, Crake T, et al. Acetylcholine and endothelial function. Circulation 1998;98:1587A–90A. - PubMed
    1. Doucette JW, Corl PD, Payne HM, et al. Validation of Doppler guide wire for intravascular measurement of coronary artery flow velocity. Circulation 1992;85:1899–911. - PubMed
    1. Tousoulis D, Davies G, Lefroy DC, et al. Variable coronary vasomotor responses to acetylcholine in patients with normal coronary arteriograms: evidence for localised endothelial dysfunction. Heart 1996;75:261–6. A study describing in detail the technique of intracoronary infusions of acetylcholine for direct evaluation of endothelial function in the coronaries. - PMC - PubMed

MeSH terms

Substances