Response of Skin Blood Flow to an External Pressure

The paper studies the response of skin blood flow(SBF) to garment pressure. An alternative pressure loading by using sphygmomanometer is applied on an ankle, and SBF is observed with a laser flowmeter, and it obviously increases under certain conditions. The wavelet analysis is carried out to further reveal that the frequency of myogenic activity decreases under external pressure. Based on an open-close model of capillaries for microcirculatory regulation, it is explained that an external pressure causes decrease of blood flow in metarterioles, prolongs the open time of the connecting capillaries and thus increases the capillary opening rate; consequently the blood flow in skin capillaries increases.