[home] [Personal Program] [Help]

---

Session: Poster session I
Session starts: Thursday 24 January, 15:00

---

Mariska Nieuwenhoff (Department of Anesthesiology, Erasmus MC Rotterdam, ‘s-Gravendijkwal 230, 3015 CE Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
Yusang Wu (Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, the Netherlands)
Alfred Schouten (Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, the Netherlands)
Frans van der Helm (Department of Biomechanical Engineering, Delft University of Technology, Mekelweg 4, 2628 CD Delft, the Netherlands)
Frank Huygen (Department of Anesthesiology, Erasmus MC Rotterdam, ‘s-Gravendijkwal 230, 3015 CE Rotterdam, the Netherlands)
Sjoerd Niehof (Department of Anesthesiology, Erasmus MC Rotterdam, ‘s-Gravendijkwal 230, 3015 CE Rotterdam, the Netherlands)

Abstract:
INTRODUCTION In the human body, small nerve fibers mediate information regarding pain and temperature discrimination, functions that are often impaired in diabetes. Small nerve fibers play an important role in local control of the vasomotor response. We are investigating the effect of impaired small nerve fibers on the vasomotor response. Local thermal stimuli are applied to the skin with an irradiation heat source to elicit a vasomotor response. The response to the thermal stimulus is recorded with thermal imaging, enabling evaluation of the thermodynamic response of the skin. Irrespective of the application area, analysis of dynamic thermal imaging is not without challenges. We will discuss results of our experiment and the challenges we encountered during data analysis. METHODS We have included five healthy subjects, aged 20-30 years. In each subject the thermodynamic response of the skin on the hand was measured three times with videothermography. The thermodynamic response on different locations on the hand was evaluated. The analysis was performed using matlab. RESULTS Four out of five subjects were female, the mean age was 24 ± 3 years. We calculated tau (τ) as an indicator of the decline of the skin temperature curve. The analysis of tau of all measurements had a mean tau of 59.6 s with a range of 51.2 – 70.2 s. DISCUSSION During the analysis of our data we encountered several challenges, which can be divided into two categories; subject related challenges and method related challenges. The challenges we encountered include: the effect of different temperatures, the range of tau, and unequal distribution of heat due to the natural curve of the back of the hand, difficulty selecting a uniform and standardized area for analysis. The results and challenges will be discussed.