Skin sympathetic outflow in Buerger's disease.

Abstract To clarify if sympathetic outflow is altered in Buerger’s disease (thromboangitis obliterans, TAO), we measured skin sympathetic nerve activity (SSNA) in TAO patients, and observed the sweating and vasoconstrictive responses during resting and with activating maneuvers. Multiunit postganglionic sympathetic activity was recorded in a skin fascicle of the tibial nerve innervating the skin of the sole (glabrous skin) and peroneal nerve innervating the skin of the dorsum pedis (hairy skin) from five TAO patients and five healthy subjects simultaneously with skin blood flow and sweat expulsion. TAO patients showed significantly less vasoconstrictor SSNA than healthy subjects (17.0±1.9 vs. 31.5±5.8 bursts/min, P