Nonlinear relationship between level of blood flow and skin temperature for different dynamics of temperature change
Vesna Vuksanovic 1, Lawrence William Sheppard 2 and Aneta Stefanovska 3*
1 Institute of Biophysics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Belgrade, Belgrade, Serbia
2 Department of Physics, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YB, UK
3 Lancaster University
* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: aneta{at}lancaster.ac.uk.
Submitted on December 14, 2007
Revised on January 29, 2008
Accepted on 22 February 2008
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Abstract |
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We present a study of the relationship between blood flow and skin temperature under different dynamics of skin-temperature-change: locally induced thermal shock and well controlled, gradual change. First, we demonstrate memory phenomena for blood flow and skin temperature under both conditions. Secondly, we point out that the 'hysteresis' loops obtained are dependent on initial conditions, indicating physiological response times of more than twenty minutes. We also show that under thermal shock the level of blood flow is preserved up to some characteristic temperature limit, independently of subject.
