65: Measurements of Blood Vessel Function

Effects of Water (Hydration) and a Meal (Calories) on the Measurements of Blood Vessel Function ($9,800)

Professor Madeleine Ball and Dr Kiran Ahuja, from the School of Human Life Sciences,  University of Tasmania, were awarded a grant to study factors that affect the measurement of blood vessel function.

The health of the arteries and their function changes with age and a range of diseases.  Non-invasive measures of arterial function can be made by the Pulse Wave Analysis (PWA) Technique.  This technique is currently being used in a number of studies conducted in the School of Human Life Sciences and the Launceston General Hospital (as well as in a number of other centres nationally) to investigate the effects of exercise and drugs as well as disease processes on arterial stiffness.  However no information is available as whether the results of PWA differ if the data is collected at fasting state compared to a postprandial state (up to four hours after food intake).  This information is required to interpret the results of the drug and exercise trials.  If there is a difference between the results of PWA at fasting and postprandial state then it would be difficult (if not impossible) to quantify the results of studies where patient data is collected at random hours and at different occasions.  In addition, our earlier work also suggested a potential effect of water intake on these results.

The aim of this study was to test the differences for the various measures of vascular function, between the conditions of fasting, fluid intake and a meal plus fluid intake, using the PWA technique.

 The results question the validity of the data collected at random hours from patients on drug therapy and indicate towards forming procedure protocols with respect to the time at which the PWA measurements should be collected.  The results indicate that PWA tests should be conducted at fasting state so as to measure the true effect of drug or exercise therapy in an individual on the measures of blood pressure and vascular function.