Evaluation of a laser Doppler multiprobe for detecting skin microcirculatory disturbances in patients with obliterative arteriosclerosis

Laser Doppler fluxmetry (LDf) is a noninvasive technique measuring blood cell flux, e.g. in human skin. By a new integrated probe the measuring volume has been increased sevenfold. Using this probe we have investigated dynamic reactions in the skin microcirculation of the big toe in nine patients with various degrees of obliterative arteriosclerosis and in ten healthy control subjects. When position was changed from the supine to the sitting a significant decrease in skin perfusion was seen in healthy subjects but not in the patients. The time to peak flow during reactive hyperemia after a three minute arterial occlusion was significantly (p less than 0.01) longer in the patients (117 +/- 81 s) than in the controls (24 +/- 6 s). We conclude that LDf, using this multiprobe, is of value for diagnosing patients with obliterative arteriosclerosis, as well as for studying dynamic reactions in the human skin microcirculation in health and disease.