The main findings of this study were the significantly lower value of StO2 − minor during physical effort in the T2DM group compared to that in the healthy group and the significant association of moderate magnitude between this variable and the adjusted HAP score, total BFP, segmental BFP, total SMM, and segmental SMM.
In a recent study using NIRS, Manfredini et al. [23] assessed individuals with PAD with and without diabetes and identified a report of late lameness in the presence of diabetes, with a significantly lower degree of oxygenation in the medial gastrocnemius muscle compared to individuals with PAD alone. Considering these results and that muscle hypoxia can impair the performance of functional tasks and balance [23], the present study stands out in identifying that individuals with diabetes, asymptomatic and without apparent PAD, present worse peripheral tissue perfusion of the lower limbs. This indicates that it is possible to intervene early upon the appearance of functional limitations and mitigate their complications.
In a previous study, Mohler et al. [12] assessed blood volume during exercise using NIRS and reported for the first time that the expansion of blood flow in individuals with T2DM without PAD during exercise was smaller than that in individuals with PAD alone. This indicates that a unique aspect of individuals with diabetes is the impairment of blood volume during exercise [12]. This behavior is similar to the results observed in the present study, i.e. the lower value of StO2 − minor during progressive effort in the T2DM group. This finding reinforces the hypothesis that, even without PAD, individuals with diabetes have less capillary volume expansion caused by impaired vasodilation due to endothelial dysfunction [24]. Therefore, there is a deficiency in the oxygen supply to the active muscles. In addition, the group of healthy people showed a greater variation in SBP compared to physical exertion, which reflects their better cardiac function [25].
Other studies have evaluated the behavior of peripheral tissue perfusion during exercise in individuals with T2DM using NIRS [11, 26]. However, these studies [11, 26] corroborate that muscle oxygenation is impaired in T2DM individuals concerning to healthy ones. According to Barker et al. [27], tissue perfusion values differ between different anatomical points. Therefore, the current study is important in understanding the tissue perfusion of the muscle most affected by peripheral atherosclerotic phenomena, the sural triceps [28], and mainly because it is assessed in a more functional activity such as walking.
Manfredini et al. [29], in their study, evaluated the metabolism of the medial gastrocnemius in individuals with PAD concerning to healthy individuals. This study [29] observed a compensatory response to a significant increase in HR in the group with PAD, even with 21% of this group using beta-blockers, thus maintaining the same volume of local blood in relation to healthy ones. This increase in microvascular blood flow is expected due to the compensatory mechanism in response to impaired blood flow in the larger arterial vessels; however, individuals with diabetes are not able to adjust their cardiac output [30]. This can be seen in the present study since the HR variation during effort was significantly lower in the group with T2DM than that in the healthy group. However, another possible explanation for this behavior is the use of beta-blockers, a class of drugs that reduce HR [31], by 25.80% of the group with diabetes.
Another significant difference found in the present study was the lower physical activity level in the group with T2DM compared to the healthy group. This difference is expected because there is a decrease in physical activity among individuals with diabetes due to greater difficulty in exercising [32]. This may be because these individuals have fewer type I muscle fibers (mitochondrial dysfunction), or because they have a decreased microvascular response in the lower limbs during exercise [30]. Thus, peripheral impairments, not only central limitations, are important contributors to low physical fitness in individuals with diabetes [9]. However, despite the statistical difference in the physical activity level, both groups had the same classification, being considered active (adjusted HAP score > 74) [18], which indicates that even in physically active individuals, peripheral tissue perfusion in individuals with diabetes type 2 is worse.
Thus, the same classification of the physical activity level can justify the similar functional capacity between the groups, which was directly measured by the distance covered in the ISWT. Another possible reason for this result is that the group with T2DM selected for the study did not present vascular alterations in the ABI. Otherwise, the common microvascular stiffness in individuals with symptomatic diabetes limits the delivery of oxygen to skeletal muscles, inducing early fatigue during exercise [9].
Considering that StO2 is the most important direct parameter in clinical practice [33], but assessment is not always possible, in the present study, we highlight the inverse correlation between the value of the lowest StO2 during progressive effort in the T2DM group and the adjusted HAP score. This correlation probably occurs because a higher physical activity level in individuals with diabetes may indicate adaptations resulting from exercise, such as neovascularization and increased mitochondrial capacity [34], and also because the level of training interferes with the degree of deoxygenation of the skeletal muscles [35].
Another measure of easy clinical application that showed a direct correlation with the StO2 − minor during the ISWT was the BFP, total and segmental, with a correlation of greater magnitude in the segmental measurement. This correlation probably occurs because the thickness of the adipose tissue, especially that underlying the positioning of the NIRS, overestimates the values of StO2 [36], which in this case can be extrapolated to the value of BFP, and, more significantly, the segmental BFP that corresponds only to the evaluated lower limb. In this sense, studies have shown that body fat is directly associated with a lower supply of muscle oxygen [37, 38], since the adipose tissue has a lower metabolic rate and less blood flow; consequently, the changes in the NIRS signal are less [35]. Furthermore, according to a recent study [39], insulin resistance, a common consequence of this accumulation of fat and cause of type 2 diabetes, is associated with a decrease in the microvascular response during brachial artery occlusion, which indicates changes in microvascular function even before the development of hyperglycemia. Therefore, a limitation of the present study was the lack of insulin resistance assessment as part of the biochemical tests of the T2DM group, which could be a potential factor associated with peripheral tissue perfusion of the lower limbs in these individuals during progressive effort.
Finally, an inverse correlation was observed between SMM, total and segmental, and StO2 − minor during ISWT, which may be due to the higher metabolic demand of SMM. This behavior can be more specifically explained considering the segmental SMM, since this correlation represents hyperaemia in the active muscle during exercise, which means that the greater the SMM, the greater the blood flow at the site [40], thus favouring tissue perfusion and resulting in a lower StO2 value during the ISWT.