Assessing the acute effect of compression socks on improving arterial compliance in young volunteers

Wearing compression socks increases mean deep venous velocity, reduces venous blood retention, and improves venous return. However, no existing studies reported their effect on arteries. Thus, we aimed to determine whether wearing compression socks decreases brachial-ankle pulse wave velocity (ba-PWV).

We compared ba-PWV measurements in 106 participants (40 men and 66 women) under three conditions: bare feet, wearing normal socks, and wearing compression socks for 10 min. Mean arterial blood pressures (MAPs) were measured at the upper arms and ankles on both sides. Sensor cuffs were attached over socks to estimate pressures exerted on arterial walls by the socks in the condition of wearing socks.

Tukey's honestly significant difference test showed that PWVs for the compression sock condition were significantly lower than those for bare feet (95 % confidence intervals: 0.3051-0.9478 [right], 0.3454-0.9889 [left], p < 0.0001 on both sides) and normal sock conditions (0.0126-0.6552, 0.0656-0.7092, p < 0.04 on both sides). The mean ba-PWV of the right side decreased from 10.57 m/s (bare feet) to 9.94 m/s (compression socks) [absolute difference: 0.63 m/s; relative difference: 5.96 %]. The left-sided mean ba-PWV decreased from 10.79 m/s (bare feet) to 10.11 m/s (compression socks) [absolute difference: 0.67 m/s; relative difference: 6.21 %]. We observed no significant differences in PWVs between bare feet and normal sock conditions on either side. In the compression sock condition, the difference between upper-arm and ankle MAPs while wearing socks indicated the pressure exerted on the arterial wall by the compression socks. We found significant negative correlations between ba-PWV and the estimated pressure exerted on the arterial wall at both ankles (regression analysis, F(1, 104) = 10.55, p < 0.02) [right], F(1, 104) = 12.92, p < 0.0005 [left]).

Wearing compression socks reduced ba-PWV, indicating increased arterial compliance in lower limb arteries by applying external pressure to the arterial wall.