Heat exchange following atropine injection before and after heat acclimation

The effect of saline and atropine injection (2 mg, im) on eight healthy male subjects before and after heat acclimation was studied while each subject walked on a treadmill (1.34 m X s-1) in a hot-dry environment (ambient temperature = 48.4 degrees C, dew-point temperature = 20.5 degrees C). Partitional calorimetric analysis was done for the periods in which maximum sweat inhibition occurred (30 min). Mean skin temperature, rectal temperature, and heart rate were continuously observed. Evaporative loss from the skin was calculated by changes in body weight (Sauter balance); heat transfer coefficients were defined by Nishi equations. A prediction of sweat inhibition based on an analysis of heat storage and its effect on a theoretical temperature, which can be graphed on a psychrometric chart, was developed. A rational effective temperature (ET) defined as the operative temperature at the intersection of the 50% rh, which encompasses total heat exchange, was used to compare the effects of atropine before and after heat acclimation. The results show that heat acclimation reduced ET by approximately 2.5 degrees C when compared with the unacclimated state after atropine injection. Thus heat acclimation reduces the hazards of heatstroke caused by exercise in the heat with atropine injection.