Abstract: The present invention provides a method comprising allowing a reaction of a sample, a reagent containing Factor C, which can be activated by binding with endotoxin, and a synthetic luminescent substrate comprising a luminescent substrate bound to a peptide, for release of the luminescent substrate from the synthetic luminescent substrate, allowing a luminescent enzyme to act on the luminescent substrate released in the luminescent substrate release step, for measurement of the luminescence intensity, and quantifying the level of endotoxin in the sample based on a measured value obtained in the luminescence measuring step, the method enabling endotoxin to be simply and quickly measured at a level that cannot be detected in conventional methods for endotoxin measurement, without use of any dedicated measuring device.

Abstract: An apparatus for evaluating a vascular endothelial function, includes: a cuff pressure controlling unit configured to perform continuous pressure stimulation on a part of a body of a subject for a predetermined time, by using a cuff adapted to be wrapped around the part of the body of the subject; a cuff pressure detecting unit configured to detect a cuff pressure from an output of a pressure sensor connected to the cuff; a pulse wave detecting unit configured to detect a pulse wave from the output of the pressure sensor; and an analyzing unit configured to evaluate the vascular endothelial function by comparing vessel viscoelastic indexes which are obtained from the pulse wave detected in two of zones before, during, and after the pressure stimulation, and which exclude an amplitude of the pulse wave.