Systemic vascular function, measured with forearm flow mediated dilatation, in acute and stable cerebrovascular disease: a case-control study

Background Acute ischaemic stroke is associated with alteration in systemic markers of vascular function. We measured forearm vascular function (using forearm flow mediated dilatation) to clarify whether recent acute ischaemic stroke/TIA is associated with impaired systemic vascular function. Methods Prospective case control study enrolling 17 patients with recent acute ischaemic stroke/TIA and 17 sex matched controls with stroke more than two years previously. Forearm vascular function was measured using flow medicated dilatation (FMD). Results Flow mediated dilatation was 6.0 ± 1.1% in acute stroke/TIA patients and 4.7 ± 1.0% among control subjects (p = 0.18). The mean paired difference in FMD between subjects with recent acute stroke and controls was 1.25% (95% CI -0.65, 3.14; p = 0.18). Endothelium independent dilatation was measured in six pairs of participants and was similar in acute stroke/TIA patients (22.6 ± 4.3%) and control subjects (19.1 ± 2.6%; p = 0.43). Conclusions Despite the small size of this study, these data indicate that recent acute stroke is not necessarily associated with a clinically important reduction in FMD.