| Summary: | Obesity increases the risk of a variety of medical problems and cardiovascular
diseases. Endothelial dysfunctionis one of the earliest vascular changes that occur in
the pathogenesis.. Of cardiovascular diseases.
This phd work is composed of three studies. The first study aimed to optimize a
technique used to assess microvascular endothelial function, using laser doppler
fluximetry (ldf) and the process of iontophoresis. Ldf measures skin perfusion,
while iontophoresis is a non-invasive method of introducing charged substances
across skin by means of a small electric current to evaluate both endotheliumdependent
and endothelium independent vasodilatation. Firstly, the effect of sodium
chloride used as a vehicle to dilute the iontophoresis drugs acetylcholine (ach) and
sodium nitroprusside (snp) on non-specific vasodilatation was assessed. Secondly,
to determine the number of electrical pulses needed to reach the maximum response
during iontophoresis of ach and snp using low current strength. Thirdly, the
reproducibility of different parameters during iontophoresis of ach and snp) were
also determined. The initial iontophoresis protocol used consisted of 7 electrical
pulses of2 minutes each separated by l minute current free interval.
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