The effect of caffeine on cutaneous postocclusive reactive hyperaemia

BACKGROUND: Caffeine is reported to be the most widely used pharmacologically active substance. It causes mental stimulation and increases blood pressure. Acute systolic and diastolic blood pressure response to caffeine attenuates in the course of regular caffeine use; tolerance to cardiovascular responses develops in some people. For some hypertension-prone people coffee ingestion may be harmful, and for others it may be beneficial. The aim of our work was to evaluate the effect of caffeine on postocclusive reactive hyperaemia (PORH), a test of microvascular function, and at the same time to monitor the central effects of caffeine on blood pressure and heart rate. METHODS: Heart rate, arterial pressure, and cutaneous laser-Doppler (LD) flux were monitored in 32 healthy volunteers (aged 25.2 ± 4.3 years) before and after they ingested 200 mg of caffeine. LD flux was measured on a finger at rest and after the release of an 8-minute occlusion of digital arteries above the place of LD flux measurement. All parameters obtained after the ingestion of caffeine were compared to the values obtained before caffeine and to the values obtained after a placebo. RESULTS: We found slightly increased arterial pressure as well as decreased heart rate and resting LD flux (Dunnett’s test, p<0.05) after the ingestion of caffeine. Caffeine significantly reduced the PORH response (Dunnett’s test, p<0.01). The power of the low-frequency oscillations (0.06–0.15 Hz) of LD flux, representing vascular myogenic activity, increased significantly after the ingestion of caffeine at rest and during the PORH response. A correlation was found between the number of cups of coffee regularly consumed and resting LD flux values (R = 0.492, p = 0.00422), peak LD flux values during PORH (R = 0.458, p = 0.00847), and the PORH area (R = 0.506, p = 0.00313) after caffeine consumption. CONCLUSIONS: From the results, we can conclude that caffeine affects cutaneous microvascular function during rest and during a PORH response, and that it increases blood pressure and decreases heart rate.