Digital plethysmographic responses to auditory stimuli in patients with vibration disease

Digital plethysmographic responses to auditory stimuli in 15 healthy men and 82 patients with vibration disease were analyzed in order to clarify the functional conditions of autonomic nervous system in this disease. The auditory stimuli given to healthy men caused a rapid decrease in the amplitude of the plethysmograms. After cessation of the auditory stimuli the decreased amplitude recovered to the control value within 30 sec. In the patients with vibration disease, however, the recovery of the decreased amplitude was delayed. The plethysmographic changes in the patients with vibration disease were divided into 4 types: normal (N), intermediate (I), delayed (D) and poor response (P) types. Each type of I, D and P was altered to type N by treatments consisting of therapeutic exercises, hot spring cures and so on. All healthy men showed type N. There were no significant differences between the time courses of the recovery of the plethysmographic changes and the amplitudes of the plethysmograms before the auditory stimuli. The results obtained seem to indicate that the autonomic nervous system in the patient with vibration disease is in disorder, and that the digital plethysmography with auditory stimuli is instrumental to detect the functional changes in the autonomic nervous system.