FACTORS INFLUENCING THE CORRELATION BETWEEN DIFFERENCES OF ELECTRIC POTENTIAL IN THE SKIN OF HUMAN SUBJECTS AND BASAL METABOLISM.
High metabolic rates are associated normally with small differences of electric potential, whereas low metabolic rates are associated with large differences of electric potential as measured on the extremities of the body. Within the normal range of metabolism there appears to be a definite correlation between the metabolic rates and the difference of electric potential over a specified area of the skin, provided the person under test has no abnormalities of the circulatory system or of the functions of the skin. If there are no dysfunctions of the circulation or of the skin, the metabolic rate may be calculated, within +/-4 points, from the expression See PDF for Equation where x is the metabolic rate and y is the difference of electric potential across the specified areas of skin (electrodes 12 cm. apart). In general, there are abnormalities of the circulation of the blood or of the functions of the skin of persons for whom the metabolic rates determined by the two methods (difference of electric potentials and gasometric procedures) do not agree with +/-4 points. Manifest retardation or return to normality in the rate of circulation of the blood, such as may be produced by the sphygmomanometric cuff under varying pressures, produces marked changes in the difference of electric potentials obtained across a specified intervening area of skin. Retardation of flow of blood produces increased differences of electric potential. Preliminary investigations indicate that there is an inverse correlation between cutaneous temperatures and differences of electric potential. Day by day variations, emotive effects and the partaking of food have less effect, in general, on the electric potentials across a specified area of skin than they have on the metabolic rates. These experimental results indicate that there may be a more direct correlation between electric potentials and the circulation of the blood per se than between electric potentials and the metabolism of the body per se. When normality of circulation of the blood and of the functions of the skin exists in the areas under test for differences of electric potential, there is apparently a correlation between metabolic rates and electric potentials.
Division of Physics and Biophysical Research, The Mayo Foundation, Rochester, Minnesota.
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