Effect of paraplegia and ambient temperature on the CIVD response based on finger/toe temperature
paraplegia, CIVD
HEAT, VASODILATION, COLD, PARAPLEGIA
In able-bodied participants, immersion of the hands and feet in cold water during exposure to a hot environment elicited a CIVD response in fingers and toes. The CIVD response in the toes was absent during exposure to thermoneutral and cool ambient conditions. The participants with paraplegia showed a similar reduction of the number of CIVD responses as the ambient temperature decreased from hot to thermoneutral and cool. Yet, contrary to the able-bodied participants who exhibited no CIVD responses in the toes at thermoneutral and cool ambient conditions, CIVD responses were present in the toes of participants with paraplegia.The core body and mean skin temperatures of the participants with paraplegia was lower during the cold water immersions performed in the thermoneutral and cool environments, indicating that they had a lower body heat content during these trials compared to the able-bodied subjects. The above-mentioned observation of more frequent occurrences of toe CIVDs in the participants with paraplegia during the cool and thermoneutral conditions is contrary to what has been observed in able-bodied individuals, namely an attenuation of the CIVD response (Daanen and Ducharme In contrast to the able-bodied participants, who did not exhibit any CIVDs during exposure to thermoneutral and cool ambient conditions, the participants with paraplegia exhibited vasodilation in the toes during these trials. The lack of CIVDs in the toes of able-bodied individuals is not a novel finding (Cheung and Mekjavic Representative data fom one participant with paraplegia (level of lesion: T4) during the warm and cold immesions while being exposed to the thermoneutral environment. In the horizontal axis, light red indicates the warm water immersion and light blue indicates the cold water immersion