Slowly-Developing Modifications in Cutaneous Circulatory Control,
Abstract
The factors discussed below affect skin blood flow (SkBF) through nonthermal mechanisms. In considering them, however, it is necessary to account for thermoregulatory effects which may operate at the same time, because of the dominant role of the latter in the control of the SkBF. Therefore, these non-thermal factors will be approaches in terms of how they modify the relation of forearm blood flow (ABF), probably the most widely used index of SkBF, to the thermoregulatory signal, as represented by esophageal temperature (T sub es) when skin temperature is not changing. Slowly developing modifications may have time courses ranging from minutes (e.g., transcapillary fluid shifts, peripheral pooling of blood) through hours (e.g., circadian rhythms, dehydration) to weeks ( e.g., exercise training, heat acclimation, menstrual cycle). Most of these factors change the threshold for vasodilation, but some also change the slope of the ABF:T sub es relation. Several of the factors that change the threshold for vasodilation likewise change thresholds for other thermoregulatory responses, such as sweating. If the operation of the thermoregulatory system as a whole is shifted to a different temperature level, such a shift represents a change in thermoregulatory set-point. fever was probably the first condition to be recognized as resulting from a change in thermoregulatory set-point, and as expected, the threshold for forearm vascodilation is elevated in fever.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- May 01, 1986
- Accession Number
- ADA168702
Entities
People
- C. B. Wenger
Organizations
- United States Army Research Institute of Environmental Medicine