Lower Limb Perfusion Asymmetries in Humans at Rest and Following Activity—A Collective View

Abstract

The significance of lower limb perfusion asymmetries remains unknown in healthy individuals. Our study aims to understand how factors such as posture, sex, age, and body weight relate to perfusion. Data from studies previously published by our group, including experiments using laser Doppler flowmetry as the gold standard for perfusion measurements in baseline, (various) challenge, and recovery phases was assembled from a total of 139 healthy participants. Body position was shown to be a primary determinant of perfusion asymmetry, especially in women. Effects of sex and age were also analyzed. In a supine position, perfusion asymmetries seemed to relate negatively in the aged group of participants, where challenge and recovery seemed to follow different processes. In the upright position, young men and women have shown comparable distributions and asymmetry ratios at baseline and recovery. In the aged group, differences between sexes were observed at baseline, but again, the course of the asymmetry ratios with challenge was essentially similar in men and women. Our analysis suggests that ageing is a critical determinant in our upright study sample, as higher baseline asymmetries and longer recoveries after challenge were linked in older males with higher body mass index (BMI).

Perfusion, Stance and Plantar Pressure Asymmetries on the Human Foot in the Absence of Disease—A Pilot Study

“…Pathological blood perfusion differences in lower limbs are known [33][34][35]. This unevenness has also been described in the absence of disease and has been related to age, sex and BMI [6,11,12,29]. Thus, the interlimb asymmetries here detected were expected.…”

“…Our group's research has been focused in understanding these physiological perfusion asymmetries in the lower limb, including distal microcirculatory adaptive mechanisms prior and after movement [8,12,[27][28][29]. In the present paper, we explore these themes further by studying potential relationships among perfusion and plantar pressure variables in the feet of a healthy group of young participants.…”

“…The significance of these asymmetries remains unknown. Sex-related interindividual baseline differences have been reported [6][7][8][9][10][11] while age and BMI seem the be critical determinants, as recently published [11,12].…”

Does leg dominance influence anterolateral thigh flap perforators?

“…Yet, our findings do not necessarily contradict the results of Fahs et al, who certified the influence of leg dominance on local vascular function, as this study did not investigate perforator quantity our quality (Fahs et al, 2014). The same applies to the study of Rodrigues et al, who assessed foot blood perfusion by laser Doppler flowmetry and found higher blood flow in dominant legs (Rodrigues et al, 2021).…”

“…Yet, our findings do not necessarily contradict the results of Fahs et al, who certified the influence of leg dominance on local vascular function, as this study did not investigate perforator quantity our quality (Fahs et al, 2014). The same applies to the study of Rodrigues et al, who assessed foot blood perfusion by laser Doppler flowmetry and found higher blood flow in dominant legs (Rodrigues et al, 2021). By contrast, Kadoguchi et al showed comparable flow mediated dilation on dominant and nondominant popliteal arteries in contrast to increased flow‐mediated dilation of brachial arteries on dominant arms compared to nondominant arms indicating an asymmetry of vascular function in the upper‐, but not in the lower extremities (Kadoguchi et al, 2020).…”