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

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.