Abstract
The state of the arterial wall in elderly patients after the application of medicinal leech was analyzed using an Angioscan-01 diagnostic device. The effect of one medicinal leech on the endothelial vasomotor function of small resistance arteries and medium-sized muscular arteries was estimated. Arterial wall rigidity was assessed by measuring the arterial stiffness index and the augmentation index during stress testing in the form of brachial artery occlusion. It has been shown that the application of one medicinal leech has not only local, but also system effect on arterial endothelium by improving its vasomotor function through normalization of arterial wall stiffness. This process is supposed to involve the salivary cell secretion of medicinal leech, which is able to raise the NO level both in cells and in extracellular fluid and to activate e-NOS and n-NOS, as it has been shown recently in the culture of human vascular endothelial cells (HUVEC).
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Original Russian Text © I.P. Baskova, I.B. Pavlova, A.S. Parfenov, 2014, published in Fiziologiya Cheloveka, 2014, Vol. 40, No. 2, pp. 112–118.
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Baskova, I.P., Pavlova, I.B. & Parfenov, A.S. Analysis of the effects of medicinal leech on arterial function in elderly volunteers by means of photoplethysmography with Angioscan-01. Hum Physiol 40, 214–219 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119714020029
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0362119714020029