Purpose The aim of this study was to evaluate the flow volume and resistive index parameters of the brachial artery in the functioning and dysfunctioning radiocephalic and brachiocephalic hemodialysis arteriovenous fistula (AVF). Methods 82 patients were distributed into three groups according to their hemodialysis function - as normal function, decreased pump flow and increased venous pressu...

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of acute cold exposure on the timing and amplitude of central aortic wave reflection and central pressure. We hypothesized that cold exposure would result in an early return of reflected pressure waves from the periphery and an increase in central aortic systolic pressure as a result of cold-induced vasoconstriction. Twelve apparently healt...

The ankle-brachial index (ABI), defined as the ratio of systolic pressure in the ankle arteries and that in the brachial artery, was a useful noninvasive method to detect arterial stenoses. There had been a lot of researches about clinical regularities of ABI; however, mechanism studies were less addressed. For the purpose of a better understanding of the correlation between vascular stenoses a...

OBJECTIVE This study investigated the effects of a high-sympathetic stimulus environment (high-altitude hypoxia) on limb-specific systolic blood pressure (sBP) and ankle-brachial index (ABI) in normal volunteers. We hypothesized that currently accepted normal values for ABI may in fact not reflect an actual normal vascular state in all patients. METHODS Twenty climbers (17 males, 3 females) f...

The southern oscillation index (SOI) is a characteristic of the El Niño phenomenon. SOI monthly averaged data is analyzed for the time interval 1866-2000. The tail of the cumulative distribution of the fluctuations of SOI signal is studied in order to characterize the amplitude scaling of the fluctuations and the occurrence of extreme events. Large fluctuations are more likely to occur than the...