Introduction. Yoga breathing exercises improve the ability to significantly reduce the respiratory rate. A decrease of the minute respiration volume results in compensatory reactions of the microcirculatory bed caused by changes in the gas composition. The reaction of the regulatory mechanisms of the microvascular bed can be evaluated by the optical non-invasive laser Doppler flowmetry method. The aim of the study was to assess the tissue microcirculation parameter changes in people performing yoga breathing exercises. Materials and methods. 25 volunteers performed yoga breathing exercises at a frequency of 3 times per minute, 2 times per minute, 1.5 times per minute, 1 time per minute for 5 minutes, and free breathing for 6 minutes before and after breathing exercises. Parameters aimed to defin the reaction of skin microcirculation in different body areas were simultaneously recorded in six sites by laser Doppler flowmetry using a distributed system of wearable analyzers. The parameters of tissue microcirculation recorded by the method of laser Doppler flowmetry were: the index of microcirculation (Im), nutritive blood flow (Imn), the amplitude of myogenic (Am), neurogenic (An), endothelial (Ae), respiratory (Ar) and cardiac (Ac) regulation circuits. Results. Yoga breathing exercises led to increase of microcirculation index at all breathing frequencies. Breathing at a frequency of 1.5 and 1/minute leads to a significant increase in nutritional blood flow. Low-frequency breathing exercises lead to an increase in blood pressure at the lowest breathing rates – 1.5/minute and 1/minute. The most significant changes were achieved at the lowest respiration rates (1 and 1.5/minute), that could be associated with hypoxic-hypercapnic mechanisms. Conclusion. The absence of significant changes in microcirculation parameters after low-frequency respiration during measurements in the supraorbital arteries in both groups characterizes the work of homeostatic mechanisms for maintaining brain perfusion in stressful situations for the body (low-frequency types of respiration, hypercapnia and hypoxia). When measured in the extremities, a change in the effect of the circulatory system regulatory mechanisms was observed; along with an increase in skin perfusion and the nutritional component, it can characterize the compensatory reaction of the microcirculation to respiration change.
Prospects of Laser Doppler flowmetry application in assessment of skin microcirculation in diabetes
