The Experimental Study of Temperature Effect on Human Blood Flow Based on the Controllable Temperature Cabin

  • Yao Chen
  • Huiting Qiao
  • Baoqing Pei
  • Yubo Fan
  • Li Ding
Conference paper
First Online:
Part of the Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing book series (AISC, volume 489)

Abstract

Human body’s endurance for high temperature or low temperature is limited. The change of environment temperature can directly affect the body surface temperature, and then affect the blood circulation system, thereby affecting the efficiency and safety of human. There are only a few reports about the relationship between temperature and blood circulation system so far. In order to explore the specific relations, we established a controllable temperature cabin. Based on the cabin, 15 healthy young male subjects’ blood flow velocity, heart rate and blood pressure were tested. The results show that the blood flow velocity at carotid artery decreases when the environment temperature increases from 15 to 25 °C, and then increases along the environment temperature increases from 25 to 40 °C. Heart rate and blood pressure presents the similar trend as the blood flow velocity along the variation of environment temperature.

Keywords

Controllable temperature cabin Blood circulation system Human factors 
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1 Introduction

There exist many high-temperature operations and low-temperature operations in the daily life, the military labor or the industrial production. In these operations, the single effect of temperature or other complex factors will lead to low efficiency, increased operation accidents, stress disorder, and even death. Common high-temperature operations include coking, steelmaking and rolling in the metallurgical industry, and also include the operations in the printing and dyeing industry [1] and so on. The high temperature in these conditions will have an obvious harmful effect on human’s physiology and psychology, and then interfere with the improvement of work efficiency. While in the low-temperature operations, such as in the cold storage, the workers will have some symptoms of knee pain and back pain, resulting in stiff limbs and then lowering the working efficiency [2]. Furthermore, the astronauts also face the problems of low-temperature operations in the extravehicular activities. For example, the extravehicular activity spacesuit glove suffers a lot from its surrounding environment (high temperature, vacuum, the universe dust collision, radiation, etc.), and then directly leading to a great loss on the efficiency of astronauts’ extravehicular activities [3]. Thus, the change of temperature directly affects human’s work efficiency and safety.

The change of environment temperature has a direct impact on body temperature, while the body temperature is the necessary condition of human’s metabolism and normal life activities. Furthermore, hyperpyrexia or hypothermia will cause hematological abnormalities, metabolic disorders, cardiovascular function changes, pulmonary hemorrhage and the decline or even the loss of the nervous system functions. Some researchers had studied the effects of temperature on blood circulation system. H. Barcroft et al. found that the blood flow of forearm changed correspondingly when putting the forearm into the water at different temperatures [4]; CW. Song et al. explored the influence of local heating or cooling on human skin’s microcirculation blood flow through the Laser Doppler Flowmeter [5]; Yinguo Zhang et al. found that the effect of hypothermia on blood pressure variability was sensitive to the heart rate variability by using surface physical cooling method to reduce the rectal temperature gradually [6]; Zhu Lin et al. found that temperature had a great impact on rabbits’ blood circulation after the microvascular surgery, by using the Na99mTcO4 trace imaging (TTI) [7]. However, there are only few researches aimed at exploring the relationships between environment temperature and human body blood circulation system so far, and how the environment temperature adjusts the blood circulation system is not clear. So, in order to explore the specific relationship, we established a controllable temperature cabin and tested 15 healthy young male subjects’ blood flow velocity, heart rate and blood pressure based on the cabin.

2 Methods

2.1 Experimental Platform

In order to complete the experiment, we established a controllable temperature cabin. The size of the cabin was 7.5 m2 (3 m * 2.5 m), and its temperature can be real-time monitored by an electric control box (NAK119 W, ®Suzhou Xinya Technology Co., Ltd, accuracy: ±0.1 °C) with the adjustment range from −10 to 50 °C. In the cabin, 36 temperature i-buttons (DS1921, ®Beijing LANCE Technology Co., Ltd, accuracy: ±0.1 °C) were evenly arranged to record the indoor temperature. We did a pre-experiment and verified that the cabin temperature reached stable after 20 min when adjusted to a specified temperature. The controllable temperature cabin can be isolated from the outside environment completely and it can also be real-time monitored and controlled, which is the basis for the following experiments. The closed controllable temperature cabin was shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1

The closed controllable temperature cabin

2.2 Subjects

The experiment data were collected from fifteen 20–25 years old males [height: 173.93 cm (±20.86); weight: 68.23 kg (±41.76)]. All subjects are healthy and have no history of cardiovascular diseases. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Biological Science and Medical Engineering School in Beihang University.

2.3 Experimental Process

Before the start of the experiment, the cabin temperature was adjusted to 15 °C, and then the subject entered into the cabin. 20 min later, the cabin temperature reached stable, and then the relevant tests began. We used the ultrasonic Doppler blood flow detector to test the blood velocity at carotid artery and saved the screenshots to record the blood velocity data. At the same time, the heart rate and blood pressure were recorded through a pulse oximetry and an electronic blood pressure meter. 5 min later we stopped all the tests and then adjusted the cabin temperature to 20 °C. 20 min later we started the next tests as the above-mentioned steps. Then we subsequently adjusted the cabin temperature to 25, 30, 35 and 40 °C, and then did the relevant tests mentioned above.

2.4 Experimental Apparatus

In this study, we used the ultrasonic Doppler blood flow detector (DVM-4300, ®Hadeco Technology Co., Ltd, accuracy: ±0.1 cm/s) to test the blood velocity, shown in Fig. 2a; we used the pulse oximetry (CMS50D, ® CONTEC Technology Co., Ltd, accuracy: ±2 bpm) to test the heart rate, shown in Fig. 2b; we used the electronic blood pressure meter (CONTEC08A, ® CONTEC Technology Co., Ltd, accuracy: ±0.3 mmHg) to test the blood pressure, shown in Fig. 2c.
Fig. 2

The experimental apparatus. The ultrasonic Doppler blood flow detector (a). The pulse oximetry (b). The electronic blood pressure meter (c)

3 Results

Table 1 shows the average data at each environment temperature (15, 20, 25, 30, 35 and 40 °C), which reflects the average blood velocity, the average heart rate and the average blood pressure in the 5 min of testing.
Table 1

The average blood velocity, the average heart rate and the average blood pressure in 5 min at each environment temperature

Environment temperature (°C)

15

20

25

30

35

40

Blood velocity (cm/s)

65.3 ± 16.4

62.1 ± 15.3

59.6 ± 14.4

62.3 ± 14.9

65.7 ± 15.2

69.4 ± 15.3

Heart rate (bpm)

84 ± 10.0

79 ± 11.5

76 ± 10.8

82 ± 11.5

88 ± 10.5

93 ± 10.9

Systolic pressure (mmHg)

122.8 ± 7.7

119.4 ± 8.1

115.2 ± 8.2

117.1 ± 7.5

119.5 ± 7.8

121.8 ± 7.7

Diastolic pressure (mmHg)

78.7 ± 8.0

76.9 ± 8.6

74.7 ± 8.0

74.3 ± 8.7

75.0 ± 8.4

76.1 ± 6.8

Figure 3 shows a typical change of the blood velocity at carotid artery from a certain subject at 15 °C.
Fig. 3

A typical change of the blood velocity at carotid artery from a certain subject at 15 °C

According to Table 1, we obtained the environment temperature-blood flow velocity diagram shown in the Fig. 4. As we can see, the blood flow velocity at carotid artery decreases when the environment temperature increases from 15 to 25°C, and then increases along the environment temperature increases from 25 to 40 °C. The minimum mean blood flow velocity at carotid artery appears when the environment temperature is about 25 °C, and the size is 59.6 cm/s. The maximum mean blood flow velocity at carotid artery appears when the environment temperature is about 40 °C, and the size is 69.4 cm/s. The maximum speed increases by 14.1 % compared to the lowest. We also found that the part of the diagram from 15 to 35 °C is symmetrical with 25 °C. In addition, blood flow velocity at carotid artery changes 4.9 % responding to the 5 °C changes of environment temperature.
Fig. 4

Environment temperature-blood flow velocity diagram

According to Table 1, we also obtained the temperature-heart rate diagram shown in the Fig. 5. As we can see, the heart rate decreases when the environment temperature increases from 15 to 25 °C, and then increases along the environment temperature increases from 25 to 40 °C. The minimum mean heart rate appears when the environment temperature is about 25 °C, and the size is 76 bpm. The maximum mean heart rate appears when the environment temperature is about 40 °C, and the size is 93 bpm. The maximum heart rate increases by 18.3 % compared to the lowest. We also found that the part of the diagram from 15 to 35 °C is symmetrical with 25 °C. In addition, heart rate changes 6.2 % responding to the 5 °C changes of environment temperature.
Fig. 5

Environment temperature-heart rate diagram

According to Table 1, we also obtained the temperature-systolic pressure and temperature-diastolic pressure diagram shown in the Figs. 6 and 7. As we can see, the blood pressure presents similar trends with blood velocity and heart rate. The minimum mean systolic pressure appears when the environment temperature is about 25 °C, and the size is 115.2 mmHg. The maximum mean systolic pressure appears when the environment temperature is about 15 °C, and the size is 122.8 mmHg. The maximum systolic pressure increases by 6.2 % compared to the lowest. The minimum mean diastolic pressure appears when the environment temperature is about 30 °C, and the size is 74.3 mmHg. The maximum mean diastolic pressure appears when the environment temperature is about 15 °C, and the size is 78.7 mmHg. The maximum diastolic pressure increases by 5.6 % compared to the lowest.
Fig. 6

Environment temperature-systolic pressure diagram

Fig. 7

Environment temperature-diastolic pressure diagram

4 Conclusions

  1. i.

    In this study, we successfully established the controllable cabin which can be real-time monitored and controlled with the adjustment range from −10 to 50 °C.

     
  2. ii.

    We executed the experiment on fifteen subjects and explored the effect of environment temperature on human blood flow.

     
  3. iii.

    We found that the blood flow velocity at carotid artery decreases when the environment temperature increases from 15 to 25 °C, and then increases along the environment temperature increases from 25 to 40 °C. Heart rate and blood pressure presents the similar trend as the blood flow velocity along the variation of environment temperature. However, the environment temperature has a larger impact on blood flow velocity and heart rate compared to blood pressure. Therefore, the environment temperature indeed affects the blood flow circulation system regularly, and we can use this regulation to better guide the production and life, improving work efficiency. This study indicates the effect of environment temperature on human blood flow, while the mechanism of the environment temperature effect required further investigation.

     

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Copyright information

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2016

Authors and Affiliations

  • Yao Chen
    • 1
  • Huiting Qiao
    • 1
  • Baoqing Pei
    • 1
  • Yubo Fan
    • 1
  • Li Ding
    • 1
  1. 1.School of Biological Science and Medical EngineeringBeihang UniversityBeijingChina

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