The trainability and contralateral response of cold-induced
vasodilatation in the fingers following repeated cold exposure
Mekjavić I., Dobnikar U., Kounalakis S., Musizza B., Cheung S., The trainability and contralateral response of cold-induced
vasodilatation in the fingers following repeated cold exposure, European journal of applied physiology and occupational
physiology, 2008, 104, 2, str. 193-199.
Abstract (English) Cold-induced vasodilatation (CIVD) is proposed
to be a protective response to prevent cold injuries in the extremities
during cold exposure, but the laboratory-based trainability of CIVD
responses in the hand remains equivocal.Therefore, we investigated the
thermal response across the fingers with repeated local cold exposure of
the whole hand, along with the transferability of acclimation to the
fingers of the contralateral hand. Nine healthy subjects immersed their
right hand up to the styloid process in 8 degrees C water for 30 min daily
for 13 days. The left hand was immersed on days 1 and 13. Skin temperature
was recorded on the pads of the five fingertips and the dorsal surface of
the hand. The presence of CIVD, defined as an increase in finger skin
temperature of 0.5 degrees C at any time during cooling, occurred in 98.5%
of the 585 (9 subjects x 5 sites x 13 trials) measurements. Seven distinct
patterns of thermal responses were evident, including plateaus in finger
temperature and superimposed waves. The number (N) of CIVD waves decreased
in all digits of the right hand over the acclimation period (P = 0.02),
from average (SD) values ranging from 2.7 (1.7)to 3 (1.4) in different
digits on day 1, to 1.9 (0.9) and 2.2 (0.7) on day 13. Average (SD) finger
skin temperature (T (avg)) ranged from 11.8 (1.4) degrees C in finger 5 to
12.7 (2.8) degrees C in finger 3 on day 1, and then decreased significantly
(P < 0.001) over the course of the training immersions, attaining values
ranging from 10.8 (0.9) degrees C in finger 4 to 10.9 (0.9) degrees C in
finger 2 on day 13. In the contralateral hand, N was reduced from 2.5 to
1.5 (P < 0.01) and T (avg) by approximately 2 degrees C (P< 0.01). No
changes were observed in thermal sensation or comfort of the hand over the
acclimation. We conclude that, under conditions of whole-hand immersion in
cold water, CIVD is not trainable and may lead to systemic attenuation of
thermal responses to local cooling.
