Diagnostic value of skin vasomotion investigation in vascular diseases

Skin vasomotion is the rhythmic variation of the skin microvessel diameter, responsible for the skin microcirculatory blood flow oscillation, the so called skin blood flowmotion. Experimental and clinical findings suggest that vasomotion depends on several mechanisms, such as the endothelial activity, the spontaneous myogenic activity of the microvascular wall and the sympathetic activity. Skin vasomotion can be indirectly investigated in humans by means of the spectral analysis of skin laser Doppler flowmetry tracing. A high number of studies have recently investigated skin vasomotion in patients with various vascular diseases, using this method. Findings obtained in these studies have contributed to the understanding of the pathophysiology of the microcirculatory impairment in the pathological conditions investigated. The aim of the present review is to describe the method that can be used to analyze skin vasomotion and the diagnostic value of skin vasomotion investigation in vascular diseases. Key-words:skin microcirculation, vasomotion, vascular diseases, laser-Doppler flowmetry, spectral analysis.