ABNORMAL MICROVASCULAR RESPONSES IN LATERAL EPICONDYLITIS

The laser Doppler flowmeter, an instrument highly sensitive to changes in blood flow velocity in the dermal microvascular bed, was used to e xamine a sympathetic vasomotor response (SVR) in 40 patients with late ral epicondylitis. There was a significant association between the abs ence of a normal SVR in the skin overlying the affected enthesis compa red with the unaffected contralateral epicondyle (P<0.01). These resul ts suggest that local dysfunction of the sympathetic nervous system ma y be associated with the pathogenesis of anatomically discrete pain in the enthesopathy of epicondylitis.