title: Laser Doppler imaging of skin blood flow for assessing peripheral vascular impairment in hand-arm vibration syndrome.
abstract: The objective of this study was to evaluate the usefulness of laser Doppler imaging (LDPI) of the skin blood flow for assessing peripheral vascular impairment in the hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS). The subjects were 46 male patients with HAVS, aged 50 to 69 yr, and 31 healthy male volunteers of similar age as controls. A cold provocation test was carried out by immersing a subject's hand on his more severely affected side into cold water at a temperature of 10 degrees C for 10 min. Repeated image scanning of skin blood flow of the index, middle, and ring fingers was performed every 2 min before, during, and after the cold water immersion using a PMI-II laser Doppler perfusion imager. The mean blood perfusion values in the distal phalanx area of the fingers were calculated on each image. The patients suffering from vibration-induced white finger (VWF, n=20) demonstrated significantly lower skin blood perfusion at each interval of the test as compared with those without VWF (n=26) and the controls (p<0.01, ANOVA). The blood perfusions in the HAVS patients were associated with the severity of the symptoms as classified by the Stockholm Workshop scale for vascular staging. When a subject was considered to be positive if any of the tested fingers showing a decreased blood perfusion and/or a delayed recovery pattern, the sensitivity was 80.0%, and the specificity was 84.6% and 93.5% for patients without VWF and the controls, respectively. These results suggest that the LDPI technique could provide detailed and accurate information that may help detect the existence of impaired vascular regulation to cold exposure in the fingers of workers exposed to hand-transmitted vibration.
authors.affiliation: Department of Hygiene, School of Medicine, Wakayama Medical University, Wakayama, Japan.
authors.forename: Kazufumi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Terada
authors.forename: Nobuyuki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Miyai
authors.forename: Yuki
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Maejima
authors.forename: Shunji
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sakaguchi
authors.forename: Taro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Tomura
authors.forename: Kouichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yoshimasu
authors.forename: Ikuharu
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Morioka
authors.forename: Kazuhisa
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Miyashita
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D000704:Analysis of Variance; D001783:Blood Flow Velocity; D016022:Case-Control Studies; D003080:Cold Temperature / Q000009:adverse effects; D005385:Fingers / Q000098:blood supply* / Q000503:physiopathology; D053421:Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome / Q000150:complications / Q000175:diagnosis*; D006801:Humans; D007564:Japan; D017078:Laser-Doppler Flowmetry / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016491:Peripheral Vascular Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000209:etiology; D012039:Regional Blood Flow; D012867:Skin / Q000098:blood supply; D014937:Work / Q000502:physiology