Ohmi Masato
Division of Health Sciences, Graduate School of Medicine, Osaka University.
Laser Ther. 2016 Dec 30;25(4):251-258. doi: 10.5978/islsm.16-OR-19.
The sweat glands and peripheral vessels beneath the skin surface act as minute organs governed by the skin sympathetic nerves and have important physiological functions for body temperature control and nutrition support along with maintenance of a peripheral organization. Dynamics of the mental sweating of sweat glands and the peripheral vessels reflect the activity of a sympathetic nerve. The purpose of this paper is to study the dynamic observation and analysis of sweat glands and a peripheral vessels by optical coherence tomography (OCT). In the dynamic analysis of mental sweating of sweat glands, after confirmation of the resting state of the volunteer, mental stress was applied in the form of unpleasant sound for 0.5 sec; piled-up en-face OCT images of sweat glands were then obtained time-sequentially, with the frame-spacing of 3.3 sec. A swept-source (SS) OCT was used for en-face OCT of a group of sweat glands on the subject's fingertip. Furthermore, we conducted dynamic analysis in response to external mental stress of a peripheral vessel in the second joint of the subject's third finger using 1.3-µm SS OCT. We analyzed time variation in the amount of excess sweat produced by a group of sweat glands and found a large difference in the amount of sweat stored by each sweat gland in the spiral lumen. Mental stress was also shown to cause the small artery of the finger to contract, reducing blood flow. In particular, the thickness of the tunica media of the small artery changed abruptly in response to the sound stress, increasing and then decreasing so that the artery contracted and expanded, respectively. Dynamic analysis of mental sweating in the eccrine sweat glands and changes in peripheral vessels was performed using time-sequential OCT imaging. For mental sweating, time variation in the amount of excess sweat produced could be simultaneously evaluated for a few tens of eccrine sweat glands. Furthermore, we performed the dynamic analysis of a peripheral vessel in a human finger in response to external mental stress and found that the small artery contracted and expanded in response to sound stress while continuing to pulse in synchronization with the heartbeat. These studies have the potential for establishing new knowledge about skin physiology.
皮肤表面下方的汗腺和外周血管充当着受皮肤交感神经支配的微小器官，对于体温调节、营养支持以及外周组织的维持具有重要的生理功能。汗腺和外周血管的精神性出汗动态反映了交感神经的活动。本文旨在通过光学相干断层扫描（OCT）对汗腺和外周血管进行动态观察与分析。在汗腺精神性出汗的动态分析中，确认志愿者处于静息状态后，以不愉快声音的形式施加0.5秒的精神压力；然后以3.3秒的帧间距按时间顺序获取汗腺的堆叠正面OCT图像。使用扫频源（SS）OCT对受试者指尖的一组汗腺进行正面OCT成像。此外，我们使用1.3-μm SS OCT对受试者第三指第二关节处的外周血管在外部精神压力下的反应进行了动态分析。我们分析了一组汗腺产生的多余汗液量的时间变化，发现每个汗腺在螺旋管腔中储存的汗液量存在很大差异。精神压力还显示会导致手指的小动脉收缩，减少血流量。特别是，小动脉的中膜厚度在声音压力作用下会突然变化，先增加然后减少，从而使动脉分别收缩和扩张。使用时间序列OCT成像对小汗腺的精神性出汗和外周血管变化进行了动态分析。对于精神性出汗，可以同时评估几十条小汗腺产生的多余汗液量的时间变化。此外，我们对人手指的外周血管在外部精神压力下的反应进行了动态分析，发现小动脉在声音压力作用下会收缩和扩张，同时继续与心跳同步搏动。这些研究具有建立关于皮肤生理学新知识的潜力。
