Journal
PHYSIOLOGICAL MEASUREMENT
Volume 35, Issue 9, Pages 1781-1795Publisher
IOP PUBLISHING LTD
DOI: 10.1088/0967-3334/35/9/1781
Keywords
cutaneous blood flow; plethysmograph; skin temperature; thermoregulation
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Funding
- University of Wollongong (Australia)
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The purpose of this project was to design, construct and validate water-displacement plethysmographs for the forearm, hand and foot that could clamp segmental skin temperature whilst simultaneously measuring cutaneous blood flow. Two experiments were performed. In the first, the forearm plethysmograph was validated against a mercury-in-silastic plethysmograph under thermoneutral conditions, with and without forearm heating. Cutaneous vascular conductance was elevated almost three-fold by this treatment, however, there were no significant differences between the two forms of plethysmography in either state (P > 0.05). In study two, hand and foot blood flows were measured under clamped thermoneutral conditions, but with three local skin temperature treatments (5, 25, 40 degrees C). The hand had significantly higher blood flows than the foot at both 25 degrees C (4.07 versus 2.20 mL.100mL(-1).min(-1); P < 0.05) and 40 degrees C (8.20 versus 4.47 mL.100mL(-1).min(-1); P < 0.05). The foot was maximally constricted during the two lower temperatures, yet the cutaneous thermal sensitivity of the hand was almost two-fold greater (P < 0.05). This evidence supports the significant role played by these appendages in heat loss and conservation, and these plethysmographs will now be used to map cutaneous vascular responses (forearm, hand, calf, foot) across combinations of core and local skin temperatures.
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