Key Laboratory of Rehabilitation Technical Aids of Ministry of Civil Affair, School of Biological Science and Medical Engineering, Beihang University, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Beijing Key Laboratory of Rehabilitation Technical Aids for Old-Age Disability, Key Laboratory of Human Motion Analysis and Rehabilitation Technology of the Ministry of Civil Affairs, National Research Center for Rehabilitation Technical Aids, Beijing, People's Republic of China.
Biomed Eng Online. 2021 Feb 2;20(1):14. doi: 10.1186/s12938-021-00849-9.
The lower extremities of the body often suffer from impaired microcirculation, particularly in the elderly or people with underlying conditions such as diabetes. Especially for people suffering from peripheral vascular diseases, skin lesions or wearing an external fixator in one side of limbs, direct contact treatments are not suitable for them to improve microcirculation. Heating the contralateral limb has been reported to improve blood flow in the impaired limb. However, its effect on plantar microvascular responses has not been previously investigated. Thus, the aim of this study was to explore how heating by warm bath and infrared radiation affects the circulations in the contralateral foot. Twelve healthy adults participated in this study and were randomly assigned to either placing the left foot in a warm bath or exposing it to infrared radiation for 10 min intervention every other day. The skin temperature (Temp) and skin blood flow (SBF) in the second metatarsal head of the contralateral foot were measured before and after the intervention.
The results showed that both Temp (Bath: from 29.05 ± 3.56 °C to 31.03 ± 4.14 °C; Infrared: from 29.98 ± 3.86 °C to 31.07 ± 3.92 °C) and SBF (Bath: from 62.26 ± 48.12 PU to 97.76 ± 63.90 PU; Infrared: from 63.37 ± 39.88 PU to 85.27 ± 47.62 PU) in the contralateral foot were significantly increased after heating in both tests (p < 0.05). However, the contralateral SBF increased for 5 min after heating in warm bath test, but only for 1 min in infrared radiation test.
The results of this study show that both heating methods are the effective at increasing contralateral Temp and SBF, but the warm bath has a stronger residual thermal effect.
身体下肢常出现微循环受损，尤其是老年人或患有糖尿病等基础疾病的人群。特别是对于患有周围血管疾病、肢体一侧有皮肤损伤或佩戴外固定器的人群，直接接触治疗并不适合改善微循环。有报道称，加热对侧肢体可以改善受损肢体的血流。然而，其对足底微血管反应的影响尚未被研究过。因此，本研究旨在探讨温水浴和红外线辐射加热如何影响对侧足部的循环。12 名健康成年人参与了本研究，并随机分为左足置于温水浴或暴露于红外线辐射中 10 分钟，每隔一天进行一次干预。在干预前后测量对侧第二跖骨头的皮肤温度（Temp）和皮肤血流（SBF）。
结果显示，两种加热方式均能显著增加对侧 Temp（温水浴：从 29.05±3.56°C 增加到 31.03±4.14°C；红外线：从 29.98±3.86°C 增加到 31.07±3.92°C）和 SBF（温水浴：从 62.26±48.12PU 增加到 97.76±63.90PU；红外线：从 63.37±39.88PU 增加到 85.27±47.62PU）（p<0.05）。然而，在温水浴试验中，加热后对侧 SBF 仅增加 5 分钟，而在红外线辐射试验中仅增加 1 分钟。
本研究结果表明，两种加热方式均能有效增加对侧 Temp 和 SBF，但温水浴具有更强的余热效应。
