Contractile and elastic properties of normal and varicose long saphenous veins, studiedin vitro

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Abstract
Preparations from normal and from varicose long saphenous veins were compared in respect to their contractile and elastic properties. On addition of adrenaline the normal veins showed significantly greater percentual contraction than the varicose, and when treated with mono-iodoacetic acid under anaerobic conditions they exhibited significantly greater relaxation. With an increasing load the percentual extensibility was greater for normal than for corresponding varicose veins. Contracted preparations from normal veins showed greater percentual extensibility than fully relaxed ones. Owing to the initial difference in length following contraction and relaxation, the contracted preparations required a load of 32 g to attain a length equivalent to that reached by relaxed preparations at a load of 2 g. Contracted and relaxed preparations from varicose veins differed but little in respect to extensibility. The values of Young''s modulus, calculated for each group of preparations, were found to be highest for relaxed varicose veins and lowest for contracted normal veins. The reduced contractility and extensibility of varicose veins may be attributable to the histologically demonstrable degeneration of the muscular and elastic components of the vessel wall.

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