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Spontaneous skin temperature oscillations in normal human subjects
V Shusterman1, K P Anderson, O Barnea
1Cardiac Electrophysiology Program, University of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania 15213, USA.
The American Journal of Physiology
|October 10, 1997
Summary
Skin temperature variability, measured noninvasively, reflects vasomotor activity in blood vessels. This finding suggests a new method for assessing blood flow regulation and vascular health in humans.
Area of Science:
- Physiology
- Biomedical Engineering
- Cardiovascular Research
Background:
- Spontaneous skin temperature oscillations occur in humans.
- These oscillations are hypothesized to originate from vasomotor activity in subcutaneous blood vessels.
Purpose of the Study:
- Investigate a noninvasive method to measure skin temperature variability.
- Determine if temperature variability correlates with vasomotor activity.
- Explore the origin of skin temperature oscillations.
Main Methods:
- High-resolution measurements of skin temperature oscillations (0.01-0.04 Hz).
- Simultaneous recording of continuous blood pressure waveforms.
- Cross-spectral and coherence analysis to compare temperature and pressure variability.
- Assessment of responses to mental stress and reproducibility over time.
Main Results:
- High correlation (0.92) and coherence (>0.9) between skin temperature and blood pressure variability peaks.
- Similar spectral energy and peak frequency changes in both signals during mental stress.
- High reproducibility of temperature variability measurements over 1-12 weeks.
Conclusions:
- Skin temperature variability is a reliable, noninvasive indicator of vasomotor activity.
- This method can be attributed to blood flow changes driven by vascular smooth muscle tone oscillations.
- Offers a potential new tool for assessing peripheral vascular regulation.