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Local and remote thermoregulatory changes affect NIRS measurement in forearm muscles

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Abstract

Purpose

Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) assessment in skeletal muscle is potentially affected by circulatory changes occurring in superficial tissues. The aim of this study was to separately assess the interference from skin microcirculation and large vein blood flow by investigating the effect of selective local and remote warming-induced vasodilation, respectively.

Methods

Blood volume and oxygenation changes were investigated in the forearm muscles of healthy subjects in two experimental series (ES) during selective forearm (ES1, n = 12) or hand warming (ES2, n = 10). In ES1, the response to muscle contraction (10 s, 70 % MVC) and occlusion before and after warming was also investigated, while in ES2 two NIRS probes were expressly positioned over a visible vein and over a vein-free area.

Results

Local warming increased the modified Beer–Lambert (BL) blood volume indicator, tHb, by 5.3 ± 3.6 µmol/L cm to an extent comparable to post-contraction hyperemia (6.8 ± 2.9 µmol/L cm, p < 0.01). Remote warming increased skin blood flow at the hand and tHb at both forearm sites (on average: 5.4 ± 4.8 µmol/L cm, p < 0.01). Conversely, indicators of blood volume and oxygenation, based on spatially resolved spectroscopy (SRS), were not affected by any of the warming stimuli.

Conclusions

These results demonstrate for the first time that: (1) blood drained by superficial veins may affect BL measurement; (2) it is difficult to exclude veins from the measurement by simple visual inspection of the cutaneous surface; (3) SRS effectively rejects artifacts from superficial hemodynamic changes in both cutaneous microcirculation and large veins. These results bear implications to conditions in which thermoregulatory adjustments cannot be excluded.

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Abbreviations

ANOVA:

Analysis of variance

BL:

Modified Beer–Lambert

ES:

Experimental series

Hb:

Hemoglobin

HHb:

Deoxyhemoglobin

LC:

Load cell

LDF:

Laser Doppler flowmetry

MVC:

Maximum voluntary contraction

NIRS:

Near infrared spectroscopy

O2Hb:

Oxyhemoglobin

PCH:

Post-contraction hyperemia

PVF:

Presumably vein free

SBF:

Skin blood flow

SII:

Skin interference index

SRS:

Spatially resolved spectroscopy

tHb:

Total hemoglobin index (based on modified Beer–Lambert technique)

THI:

Total hemoglobin index (based on spatially resolved spectroscopy technique)

TOI:

Total oxygenation index

TRS:

Time-resolved spectroscopy

VV:

Visible vein

WIH:

Warming-induced hyperemia

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Acknowledgments

We are grateful to the Laboratory of Engineering of Neuromuscular System and Motor Rehabilitation (LISiN, Politecnico di Torino) for lending us the NIRS device. The work has been supported by a grant from the Italian Ministry of Health (RF-2009-1551299) and by the Instituto Nazionale Ricerche Cardiovascolari (INRC).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neuroscience, University of Torino, c.so Raffaello 30, 10125, Turin, Italy

    Alessandro Messere & Silvestro Roatta

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  1. Alessandro Messere
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  2. Silvestro Roatta
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Correspondence to Silvestro Roatta.

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Communicated by Narihiko Kondo.

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Messere, A., Roatta, S. Local and remote thermoregulatory changes affect NIRS measurement in forearm muscles. Eur J Appl Physiol 115, 2281–2291 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-015-3208-7

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