Inorganic nitrate supplementation enhances functional capacity and lower-limb microvascular reactivity in patients with peripheral artery disease.

Study answer

What this study found

Eight weeks of sodium nitrate supplementation improved lower-limb vascular function and functional capacity in patients with PAD. Calf peak blood flow increased from 11.6±4.9 to 14.1±5.1 mL/dL tissue/min (p<0.05, d=0.50) and calf peak vascular conductance increased from 11.1±4.3 to 14.2±4.9 mL/dL tissue/min/mmHg (p<0.05, d=2.21), while placebo showed no improvement. Six-minute walk distance increased by nearly 40 meters, and the paper reports increased plasma nitrate/nitrite with no change in forearm vascular function, inflammatory/adhesion biomarkers, or adverse effects. No group-by-time…

Study & population

This was a block-randomized, placebo-controlled study in adults with diagnosed peripheral artery disease recruited from the University of Iowa Vascular Clinic.

Intervention

Sodium nitrate (NaNO3) 1 g/day, 8.5 mM, was given daily for 8 weeks.

Key limitation

The trial was small, single-center, and short duration (8 weeks), with some outcome analyses based on even smaller subsets than the enrolled sample.

View full study detailsView sourceOpen PDF

Original abstract