Kurzfassung

To date, endothelial “health” (or lack thereof) has been characterized in humans, in vivo, using a number of methods. Some of these are invasive, requiring the intra-arterial infusion of endothelium-dependent vasoactive drugs. Although this approach has been useful, it is not suited for repeated studies over time or for large-scale clinical trials. The measurement of flow-mediated dilation (FMD) overcomes this limitation, and is presently the most commonly employed tool to characterize “...To date, endothelial “health” (or lack thereof) has been characterized in humans, in vivo, using a number of methods. Some of these are invasive, requiring the intra-arterial infusion of endothelium-dependent vasoactive drugs. Although this approach has been useful, it is not suited for repeated studies over time or for large-scale clinical trials. The measurement of flow-mediated dilation (FMD) overcomes this limitation, and is presently the most commonly employed tool to characterize “endothelial function” in humans. One systematic limitation of this type of approach is that FMD is the expression of endothelial reserve (i.e., how much the endothelium can be activated by a specific stimulus) and not a measure of how much the endothelium is active at rest. To date, this type of information can only be acquired using invasive methods. In previous studies, we have validated a novel non-invasive method that allows quantification of resting endothelial tone.
The purpose of the present grant application is to develop this parameter investigating its scientific interest and clinical power.
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