FIGURE 2.

Sex differences in NIRS-measured skeletal muscle microvascular response to cuff-induced ischaemia and exercise. Bars represent marginal means for female (pink) and male (blue). Error bars are 95% confidence intervals. ∆TSI_BL-EE is the change in tissue saturation index (TSI) between rest (baseline, BL) and the end of exercise (EE); ∆TSI_INC-MIN is the change in TSI from it is highest point at the increment (INC) to it is minimum (MIN); ∆TSI_BL-INC is the change in TSI from the BL to the highest point (INC). Area under the curve (AUC) had a skewed distribution and so log transformed values are presented. Model 1 (M1) is adjusted for age, ethnicity, adipose tissue thickness (ATT), height, ischaemic duration and presence of type 2 Diabetes and cardiovascular disease. The change in tissue saturation index (∆TSI) from baseline to end of exercise (BL-EE) and ∆TSI from increment to minimum (Inc-min) were additionally adjusted for workload achieved during exercise and the ∆TSI from baseline to the initial increment (BL-Inc) was additionally adjusted for change in mean arterial pressure at the beginning of exercise in model 1.