Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 17, 2026

Doppler Ultrasound-Based Leg Blood Flow Assessment During Single-Leg Knee-Extensor Exercise in an Uncontrolled Setting
Published on: December 15, 2023
Changes in lower-leg blood flow during warm-, cold-, and contrast-water therapy
Kimberly A Fiscus1, Thomas W Kaminski, Michael E Powers
1George C. Marshall High School, Falls Church, VA, USA.
Objective:
To examine arterial blood flow in the lower leg during warm-, cold-, and contrast-water therapy.
Design:
A crossover trial with repeated measurements on the dependent variable.
Setting:
Hydrotherapy area of a climate-controlled sports medicine clinic.
Participants:
A volunteer sample of 24 healthy men.
Intervention:
Four randomly assigned treatments were performed on each subject on consecutive days.
Main Outcome Measure:
Arterial blood flow (mL per 100mL/min) from baseline measurements were recorded in a 3-minute to 1-minute on-off ratio for 20 minutes by using strain gauge plethysmography.
Results:
Contrast therapy produced fluctuations in blood flow throughout the 20-minute treatment. Warm-water therapy (40 degrees C) resulted in significant (P < .001) changes in blood flow compared with the control and contrast conditions. Cold-water therapy (13 degrees C) did not produce significantly decreased blood flow as compared with the control condition.
Conclusions:
We suggest that further studies involving contrast therapy to the lower leg in injured populations be carried out to determine whether our initial findings are clinically relevant.
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