Repeatability of noninvasive surrogates of endothelial function.

We compared the repeatability of 2 ultrasonographic methods for endothelial function assessment at brachial artery-flow-mediated dilation (FMD) and post-ischemic peak blood flow (PBF). Twenty healthy volunteers were examined twice within 10 days; coefficients of variation were 13.8% for PBF and 41.0% for FMD. PBF seems to be superior to FMD in terms of reproducibility. Consequently, smaller noninvasive studies of endothelial function can be designed utilizing PBF compared with FMD. Copyright 2004 Excerpta Medica, Inc.