A Preliminary Study on Effect of Posture on Percentage Finger Systolic Blood Pressure Assessing Peripheral Vascular Function for Diagnosing Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome

摘要

Percentage finger systolic blood pressure (%FSBP) in response to cold provocation is used for assessing vascular components of the hand-arm vibration syndrome. A seated or supine relaxed posture during measurement of FSBP is proposed in the ISO/CD 14835-2 (2001). In the present study, we examined the effect of posture on %FSBP keeping subject's test hand at approximately heart height during the test. The FSBPs were measured simultaneously in four test fingers and one reference finger on a subject aged 27 years with 169 cm in height and 100 kg in weight. The subject wore light indoor clothing and was habituated to the test environment for 30 min before measurements began. The measurements were done using HVLab Multi-Channel Plethysmograph while the subject was in supine or in sitting posture during the whole session keeping the wrist of the right hand straight with the forearm and hand supported. The number of successive %FSBPs in sitting posture was significantly larger than that in supine posture; however, the difference between respective %FSBPs was not significant. Sitting posture for subject seems to be better to some extent than supine posture to reveal maximum number of successive %FSBPs in response to cold provocation.