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Acta Physiologica 2009; Volume 197, Supplement 675
Joint meeting of The Slovenian Physiological Society, The Austrian Physiological Society and The Federation of European Physiological Societies
11/12/2009-11/15/2009
Ljubljana, Slovenia
MODEL OF SKIN BLOOD FLOW DURING COLD EXPOSURE BASED ON THERMOSENSITIVE NEURONS AND NEUROPHYSIOLOCIAL PATHWAYS
Abstract number: P188
Kingma1 Boris RM, JH Frijns2 Arjan, HM Saris1 Wim, van Steenhoven2 Anton A, van Marken Lichtenbelt1 Wouter D
1Department of Human Biology, NUTRIM School for Nutrition, Toxicology and Metabolism of Maastricht University Medical Centre+, Maastricht, The Netherlands
2Department of Mechanical Engineering, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Background:
In humans skin blood flow plays a major role in body heat loss. Therefore the accuracy of models of human thermoregulation depends for a great deal on their ability to predict skin blood flow. Various models predicting perfusion response have in common that they require an explicit set-point. Although from an engineering perspective the meaning of a set-point might be clear, application of the concept in human physiology is still under debate. As pointed out by Mekjavic and Eiken (2006), using input from thermosensitive neurons and implementing neuro-physiological pathways of excitation and inhibition voids the necessity to explicitly declare a set-point. In this study a mathematical model for skin blood flow was developed based on current available knowledge on neural thermo-sensitivity and neural pathways. The model was fitted on human experimental data.
Measurements:
Skin temperature (wireless thermistors), core temperature (telemetric pill) and perfusion (laser Doppler flowmetry) in glabrous and non-glabrous skin were measured on 8 males and 8 females during a 15 minute baseline period followed by 15 minutes of whole body cooling (water perfused suit).
Validation:
Mean sum of squared residuals (MSSR) were assessed through k-fold cross validation. For comparison the same test was conducted for an existing model of skin perfusion (Fiala, 2001).
Results:
The model adequately explains the variance of the measurements. r2-statistics of fit on all subjects for dorsal hand (males: r2=0.908 and females: r2=0.696); and ventral hand (males: r2=0.946 and females: r2=0.977). k-fold cross validation yields MSSR dorsal hand (males Neural: 1.068 vs. Fiala: 5.066; females Neural: 1.899 vs. Fiala: 3.292); and ventral hand (males Neural: 1.994 vs. Fiala: 3.844; females Neural: 1.300 vs. Fiala: 1.487).
Conclusion:
Compared with an existing model for vasoconstriction the currently developed model yields significantly less error, especially in non-glabrous skin. In conclusion an explicit declaration of a set-point is not needed to accurately model skin blood flow during cold exposure.
To cite this abstract, please use the following information:
Acta Physiologica 2009; Volume 197, Supplement 675 :P188