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Influence of body heat content on hand function during prolonged cold exposures
- Source :
- Journal of Applied Physiology. 101:802-808
- Publication Year :
- 2006
- Publisher :
- American Physiological Society, 2006.
-
Abstract
- We examined the influence of 1) prior increase [preheating (PHT)], 2) increase throughout [heating (HT)], and 3) no increase [control (Con)] of body heat content (Hb) on neuromuscular function and manual dexterity of the hands during a 130-min exposure to −20°C (coldEx). Ten volunteers randomly underwent three passive coldEx, incorporating a 10-min moderate-exercise period at the 65th min while wearing a liquid conditioning garment (LCG) and military arctic clothing. In PHT, 50°C water was circulated in the LCG before coldEx until core temperature was increased by 0.5°C. In HT, participants regulated the inlet LCG water temperature throughout coldEx to subjective comfort, while the LCG was not operating in Con. Thermal comfort, rectal temperature, mean skin temperature, mean finger temperature (T̄fing), change in Hb (ΔHb), rate of body heat storage, Purdue pegboard test, finger tapping, handgrip, maximum voluntary contraction, and evoked twitch force of the first dorsal interosseus muscle were recorded. Results demonstrated that, unlike in HT and PHT, thermal comfort, rectal temperature, mean skin temperature, twitch force, maximum voluntary contraction, and finger tapping declined significantly in Con. In contrast, T̄fing and Purdue pegboard test remained constant only in HT. Generalized estimating equations demonstrated that ΔHb and T̄fing were associated over time with hand function, whereas no significant association was detected for rate of body heat storage. It is concluded that increasing Hb not only throughout but also before a coldEx is effective in maintaining hand function. In addition, we found that the best indicator of hand function is ΔHb followed by T̄fing.
- Subjects :
- Adult
Male
medicine.medical_specialty
Hand function
Physiology
Chemistry
Environmental Exposure
Environmental exposure
Finger temperature
Hand
Adaptation, Physiological
Body Temperature
Surgery
Cold Temperature
Endocrinology
Energy Transfer
Motor Skills
Physiology (medical)
Internal medicine
Task Performance and Analysis
medicine
Humans
Female
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15221601 and 87507587
- Volume :
- 101
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of Applied Physiology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi.dedup.....348eb05670ddbd79dcc03efce6ed774d