[Comparative cutaneous measurement of oxygen pressure (pcuO2) in healthy individuals and in patients with progressive...

A modified method combining the two methods of measuring either tissue oxygen tension (pO2) or transcutaneous pO2, which have already been proven in other clinical fields, is presented for application in particular skin diseases. This so-called "cutaneous pO2 measurement" (pcuO2) is based on measurements from commercially available transcutaneous pO2 devices, but produces moderate hyperemia through the lower electrode temperature (e.g., 40.5 degrees C) instead of maximal hyperemia (by 44 degrees-45 degrees C temperature). Values obtained this way depend more upon local skin properties, including peripheral capillary flow, than on the arterial pO2. Thus the data are termed cutaneous pO2 (pcuO2). With this method, over 140 measurements were carried out on 14 healthy subjects and 14 patients with progressive systemic scleroderma (PSS); the measurements were made at various skin sites (interdigital fold II/III, back of mid-hand) and under different conditions (3-min upper arm arterial occlusion, 5-min arm muscle activity, cold stimulus to fingers). The pcuO2 values obtained from the PSS patients were significantly below (0-15 mm Hg) those from the healthy subjects (15-42 mm Hg). Fall and recovery times for pcuO2 (during and after arterial occlusion) were prolonged about twice as long in the patients. The pcuO2 reactions to muscle activity and cold stimulus were also significantly delayed in the patients as compared to the subjects. The modified method of cutaneous oxygen tension measurement presented can be employed for more precise assessment of the degree and severity of vascular disorder in PSS, and it is complementary to other clinical methods.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)