Dynamical infrared thermography in humans

Abstract

The observations described here show that the dynamic thermographic experiments could be used in physiological investigations of humans. The temperature dynamics of human skin registered by this method are shown to depend mostly on peripheral blood flow dynamics. Therefore, factors that determine this blood flow can thus be investigated. The experiments show that several factors other than the well-known sympathetic system take part in control of peripheral blood flow dynamics. One such factor is humoral influence, which sometimes can be distinguished from neural influence by the time constants of the transient processes. Another factor is somatic system influence, observed in the spatial distribution of the temperature changes. The influence of several psychological factors has also been established. Dynamic thermography could thus be used to investigate the interaction of different factors involved in blood flow regulation.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>