The effect of sympathetic activation of sweat glands on the spatio-temporal distribution of skin temperature was studied. The practical significance of the study of sweat glands is supported by the fact that each sweat gland is controlled by the sympathetic cholinergic nerve. Dysfunction of the sympathetic nerve leads to inhibition of the activity of the sweat glands and accompanies many common diseases. In this study, the statistical and spectral properties of the dynamic infrared thermogram of skin with eccrine sweat glands during deep inspiratory gasp (breath test) were investigated. The number of open sweat pores was used as a ground truth measure for the activity of the sweat glands. Results: We found that the activation of the sweat glands, which characterizes the enhancement of the sympathetic response, leads to a change in the statistical spatial distribution of temperatures on the surface of the human body. The histogram of temperature showed a shift to the low-temperature region with a simultaneous increase in the standard deviation. The possibility of using the standard deviation and the skewness (asymmetry of the histogram) to assess the dynamics of the activity of sweat glands was shown. For the first time, the Statistical Pore Activation Index (SPAI) was introduced, which is more adaptive and shows greater accuracy than skewness. The activity of the sweat glands resulted in the appearance of spectral components within the region near 0.1 Hz, which is not typical for oscillations in skin temperature caused by hemodynamics. The results can be used for spectral separation of thermographic data from components caused by hemodynamics and activity of the sweat glands (vasomotor and sudomotor activities). Filtering the dynamic thermograms based on the investigated spectral and statistical features might serve as a method of mathematical processing for mapping the sweat glands and blood vessels on the skin surface. This might be used as a new diagnostic tool in the field of physiology and medicine.
The essence of the phenomenon of ischemic preconditioning is increasing myocardium resistance to long periods of ischemia that occurs after several short ischemia-reperfusion periods. The aim of this pilot study was to determine the temperature and vascular response in double brachial occlusions and to assess the prospects of using this maneuver for remote ischemic preconditioning. Infrared thermography-based measurements were used to assess hemodynamics both left and right hands during the baseline, ischemia and hyperemia periods. Double ischemia with a period of 2 min was implemented by a cuff compression of the brachial artery of the right hand. A study group was constituted of eight men and six women without cardiovascular abnormalities at the age of 22 to 35 years. As a result, we have determined that a temperature and vascular response to ischemia of right hand is accompanied by the vascular reaction of the contralateral left hand, especially after the inflation and deflation of the cuff. These vascular reactions are reproducible, systemic and appear to be at least neurological in nature. An experimental confirmation of the systemic vascular «training effect» after multiple brachial ischemia-reperfusion periods is a subject of further investigations.
This paper describes limit possibilities of modern cooled thermal imaging cameras as a tool for estimation of blood flow oscillations at the surface of living body. Skin temperature oscillations, as we assumed, are a consequence of the blood flow oscillations. We considered the temperature sensitivity 0.01-0.02 °C as a typical for the most of modern cooled long wave thermal imaging cameras. Fourier filter used to investigate the temperature signal separately within endothelial, neurogenic, myogenic, respiratory and cardiac frequency ranges. The level of temporal noise has been estimated during measurements of no living body with stabilized temperature ~ 24°C. The level of temperature oscillations has been calculated for the group of healthy subjects within each frequency range. Thus, we were able to determine signal-to-noise ratio within frequency band [0.001, 1] Hz. As a result, we determine that skin temperature oscillations measured by thermal imaging camera with sensitivity 0.02°C have the upper frequency limit ~ 0.2 Hz. In other words, within the respiratory and cardiac frequency ranges of blood flow oscillations the noise level exceeds signal one, and temperature measurements at the skin surface are practically useless. The endothelial, neurogenic and myogenic components of the temperature oscillations contain ~98% of the total spectral power of the signal. We have plot the empirical extrapolated curve of sensitivity of thermal imaging camera vs. frequency of the temperature oscillations. The data analysis shows that measurements of skin temperature oscillations within respiratory and cardiac ranges require the temperature sensitivity at least ~ 0.01°C and 0.001°C, respectively.
Application of thermometry as a method of blood flow estimation in hands is limited by the differences in
waveform of the skin temperature and blood flow oscillations. In addition, there is the delay time between
simultaneously registered blood flow and temperature signals. We offer the method of blood flow estimation in
hands based on the analysis of skin temperature dynamics.
Simplification of the Shitzer's temperature dynamics model in hands allowed us to express the relation between
the temperature and blood flow oscillations. As it turns out, within using model the skin blood flow is
proportionally to the first time derivative of the skin temperature, in other words, the blood flow oscillations
determine the rate of skin temperature alterations. We also derived relation between spectral components of the
blood flow and temperature oscillations. To extract spectrum of the blood flow oscillations from temperature
spectrum it is necessary using frequency dependent multiplication factor and time shift of each of temperature
spectral component.
In this study the skin temperature was registered by infrared camera and blood flow was estimated by
photoplethysmography. First time derivation of the temperature increases correlation between processed signal
and blood flow oscillations from ~0.3 to ~0.7 on average. Thus, derived relations between temperature and blood
flow in fingertips provide the basis for the application of thermometry in the field of analysis of low-frequency
peripheral blood flow oscillations.
Interrelation of skin temperature and blood flow oscillations of fingers under normal conditions in healthy subjects has
been investigated. Oscillations of a blood flow were measured by means of photoplethysmography; oscillations of a
temperature were registered by means of thermal imaging camera.
The method of blood flow reconstruction by temperature oscillations with the use of the Pennes bioheat transfer equation
and a definition of delay time of a temperature in relation to blood flow signal has been described. Temperature oscillations
have a lag in relation to blood flow oscillations of approximately 10-20 seconds. Delay time of temperature waves
can be used for the definition of an effective thickness of a tissue layer separating blood vessels and skin surface.
Use of the described technique of comparison of finger blood flow and temperature oscillations allows to raise correlation
coefficient of the signals from 0.35 to 0.63 on average, which testifies of high degree of conditionality of temperature
oscillations by blood flow oscillations.
The considered method of non-contact restoration of blood flow oscillations by means of temperature oscillation measurements
might find practical application in skin thermal lesions research, research of influence of physical and chemical
factors on a skin microcirculation.
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