Spectral correlation study of skin blood flow oscillation

Abstract

Spontaneous rhythmic oscillations in microvessel diameter are known as vasomotion. Vasomotion is the intrinsic property of small arteries and arterioles and is dependent of heartbeat, respiration, or neuronal input. The skin microcirculation is an anastomotic network of vessels with many crucial functions in which the blood flow must be finely regulated and tuned in order to fulfill all the demands of the organism. The laser Doppler Flowmetry (LDF) can be used to measure dynamic changes in skin blood flow over a small area. Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) considers that there exist acupoints around body which are connected by meridian, and stimulating the acupoint is a typical therapeutic technique in TCM. It was found that stimulating one acupoint could enhance the vasomotion in another acupoint significantly. We argue that the vasomotions in these two acupoints could be correlated to each other. To verify our argument, we used the laser Doppler Flowmetry (LDF) to measure the skin blood flow at two acupoints, and carried out spectral and correlation analyses. It is found that the vasomotions related to myogenic activity are quite strong at acupoints and the correlation is discernable. The vasomotion related to myogenic activity at non-acupoint is much weaker and there is no significant correlation between the acupoint and non-acupoint.