Individuals Can be Taught to Sense the Degree of Vascular Occlusion: Implications for Practical Blood Flow Restriction

Abstract

Abstract Song, JS, Hammert, WB, Kataoka, R, Yamada, Y, Kang, A, and Loenneke, JP. Individuals can be taught to sense the degree of vascular occlusion: Implications for practical blood flow restriction. J Strength Cond Res 38(8): 1413–1418, 2024—It is currently unknown if individuals can be conditioned to a relative arterial occlusion pressure (AOP) and replicate that pressure at a later time point. The purpose of this study was to determine whether individuals can be taught to sense a certain relative pressure (i.e., target pressure) by comparing a conditioning method with a time-matched non-conditioning control. Fifty-eight subjects completed 2 visits in a randomized order: (a) conditioning condition and (b) time-matched control condition. The conditioning involved 11 series of inflations to 40% AOP for 12 seconds followed by cuff deflation for 22 seconds. The pressure estimations were taken at 5 and 30 minutes after each condition. Data are presented as mean differences (95% credible interval). The absolute error at 5 minutes was greater for the control compared with conditioning condition (7.1 [2.0–12.1] mm Hg). However, this difference in absolute error between conditioning and control was reduced at 30 minutes (2.9 [−1.3 to 7.1] mm Hg). The mean difference and 95% limits of agreement for the control were 8.2 (−42.4 to 58.5) mm Hg at 5 minutes and 0.02 (−43.5 to 43.5) at 30 minutes. The agreements for the conditioning were −6.2 (−32.4 to 20.0) mm Hg at 5 minutes and −11.2 (−36.6 to 14.3) mm Hg at 30 minutes. The results suggest that the individuals can be taught to sense the target pressure, but this effect only lasts a short amount of time. Future work is necessary to refine the conditioning method to extend the duration of this conditioning effect.