Wine Dilates the Brachial Artery but does not Increase Flow-mediated Dilatation over Two Hours

Epidemiological evidence suggests cardiovascular benefits from the consumption of alcoholic beverages, butcorroboration by functional and outcome studies is still outstanding. Non-invasive functional tests on the brachialarteries of healthy volunteers were performed before and for two hours after consuming red wine. Brachial arterydimensions were determined by ultrasound at baseline, 30, 60 and 120 min. Flow-mediated dilatation (FMD) wassimilarly assessed. Putative minimum and maximum lumen diameters were determined after ice immersion andsublingual trinitroglycerine (TNG) at baseline and 60 min after wine consumption. Sixteen subjects had a meanresting brachial artery diameter of 3.84 mm, which significantly increased with wine to 4.44 mm at 30 min, 4.39mm at 60 min and 4.49 mm at 120 min. The calculated blood flow rates during the study did not differ significantlyover the measured intervals. The baseline mean diameter with TNG was not significantly different from the dilationwith wine. The vasoconstrictor response varied, with a -2.6 ± 2.9% change with wine, compared with the baselinediameter. There was appreciable variation of the diameter relative to the range found with ice and TNG. Thecalculated FMDs (% changes) for the study were 10.8, 6.1, 5.6 and 7.5, indicating statistically significant effects ofwine (p < 0.0001). The authors conclude that red wine consumption leads to beneficial arterial effects that mayrelate to different doses or other mechanisms than FMD. Further studies need to be done to discriminate betweenthe effects of alcohol and phenolic compounds on vascular function