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Enhanced phase synchronization of blood flow oscillations between heated and adjacent non-heated sacral skin

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Abstract

The study of skin microcirculation may be used to assess risk for pressure ulcers. It is observed that local heating causes an increase in blood flow of not only the heated skin, but also in the adjacent non-heated skin. The underlying physiological mechanism of this indirect vasodilation of the non-heated skin remains unclear. We hypothesized that blood flow oscillations (BFO) in the adjacent non-heated skin area synchronize with BFO in the heated skin, thus inducing a vasodilatory response. We investigated BFO in the heated and adjacent non-heated skin (12.1 ± 1.2-cm distance) on the sacrum in 12 healthy participants. The ensemble empirical mode decomposition (EEMD) was used to decompose blood flow signals into a set of intrinsic mode functions (IMFs), and the IMFs with power spectra over the frequency range of 0.0095–0.02, 0.02–0.05, and 0.05–0.15 Hz were chosen as the characteristic components corresponding to metabolic, neurogenic, and myogenic regulations, respectively. Then, the instantaneous phase of the characteristic components was calculated using the Hilbert transform. From the time series of phase difference between a pair of characteristic components, the epochs of phase synchronization were detected. The results showed that myogenic and neurogenic BFO exhibited self-phase synchronization during the slower vasodilation of the heated skin. In the non-heated skin, the degree of synchronization of BFO is associated with the changes in blood flow.

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Abbreviations

BFO:

Blood flow oscillations

EEMD:

Ensemble empirical mode decomposition

IMF:

Intrinsic mode functions

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health (grant R21HD065073).

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  1. Department of Kinesiology and Community Health, Center for Health, Aging and Disability, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 1206 South Fourth Street, Room 2009, Champaign, IL, 61820, USA

    Fuyuan Liao & Yih-Kuen Jan

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Correspondence to Yih-Kuen Jan.

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Liao, F., Jan, YK. Enhanced phase synchronization of blood flow oscillations between heated and adjacent non-heated sacral skin. Med Biol Eng Comput 50, 1059–1070 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11517-012-0948-y

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