Preliminary observations of passive exercise using whole body periodic acceleration on coronary microcirculation and glucose tolerance in patients with type 2 diabetes

BackgroundThe whole body periodic acceleration (WBPA) system was recently developed as a passive exercise device by providing increased pulsatile shear stress for improvement of endothelial function. This study aimed to investigate the acute effects of WBPA on coronary microcirculation and glucose tolerance in patients with type 2 diabetes (T2D).MethodsThe study subjects were 8 patients with T2D who underwent transthoracic Doppler echocardiography for the assessment of coronary flow reserve (CFR) before and immediately after a 45-min session of WBPA. The flow velocity in the distal portion of the left anterior descending coronary artery was measured at baseline and during adenosine infusion. The CFR represented the ratio of hyperemic to basal mean diastolic flow velocity.ResultsWBPA increased CFR from 2.3 ± 0.3 to 2.6 ± 0.4 (p = 0.02). WBPA decreased serum insulin level from 26 ± 19 μIU/ml to 19 ± 15 μIU/ml (p = 0.01) and increased total adiponectin from 11.6 ± 7.3 μg/ml to 12.5 ± 8.0 μg/ml (p = 0.02) and high molecular weight adiponectin from 4.9 ± 3.6 μg/ml to 5.3 ± 3.9 μg/ml (p = 0.03), whereas the serum glucose level was stable from 207 ± 66 mg/dl to 203 ± 56 mg/dl (p = 0.8).ConclusionsThis study demonstrates that a single session of WBPA treatment simultaneously improved coronary microcirculation and glucose tolerance in patients with T2D.