Peripheral microcircuiation in patients over 60 years with atherosclerosis of lower limb arteries

We investigated peripheral microcirculatory blood flow (MBF) by using laser Doppler flowmetry in 146 patients with IIB-IV stage chronic ischemia of lower limbs (CILL) according to the Pokrovsky-Fontaine classification. The objective was to study the state of peripheral MBF while carrying out functional tests in patients over 60 years with IIB-IV stage CILL before and after revascularization of lower limb arteries. When ageing, CILL patients demonstrate a decrease in the peripheral MBF baseline indicators and an increase in the quantity of defects of regulatory mechanisms and functional reserves of microcirculation, which manifest themselves as a severe paradoxical reaction of the microvasculature during an orthostatic test. In the early postoperative period the elderly patients tend to have reduced functional reserves and regulation mechanisms of MBF, with a high volume and degree of severity of MBF paradoxical reactions during an orthostatic test.