Heterogeneity of cutaneous blood flow respiratory-related oscillations quantified via LSCI wavelet decomposition

We study respiratory-related oscillations of blood flow in microvessels of the human skin. The reasons for generation of peripheral blood flow oscillations in the frequency band 0.14-0.6 Hz are as follows: cardio-respiratory interactions, pressure variations in the venous part of the circulatory system caused by respiratory excursions of the chest and the effect of the sympathetic nervous system on the vascular tone. In [1], we described the spatial heterogeneity of 0.3 Hz oscillations. This work presents a pilot study in which a number of physiological tests, an appropriate measurement system and data processing algorithms were developed. At spontaneous respiration, the 0.3 Hz oscillations turned out to be stochastic, whereas in controlled respiratory tests the spatial coherence of oscillations increases twice. The protocols and methods proposed here can help to clarify whether the heterogeneity of respiratory-related blood flow oscillations exists on the skin surface.