Digital Rewarming Patterns After Median and Ulnar Nerve Injury

Rewarming Patterns in Hand Fracture Patients With and Without Cold Intolerance

“…Second, we found no relationship between rewarming patterns after cold stress testing in patients with cold intolerance recovering from a hand fracture and subjective cold intolerance. This finding is in contrast with the findings from Ruijs et al, 32 who reported abnormal rewarming in peripheral nerve injury patients with cold intolerance. However, an important difference between these studies is that Ruijs et al studied nerve injury patients after trauma, whereas the present study excluded patients with nerve injuries, although damage to the more distal and smaller nerve branches as a result of the trauma cannot be excluded.…”

“…37 Another study by Ruijs et al with an almost identical measurement design concluded that the test/retest reliability for the Q value, the maximum slope (Q/s), and the cold stress testing was good. 32 Hence, an additional evaluation in both patient and control groups seems unnecessary.…”

“…The measurement protocol was previously used by Ruijs et al 32 The thermal sensitivity was 0.05°C at 30°C, the spectral range was 7.5 to 13.0 m, and the built-in digital video has 320 ϫ 240 pixels (total, 76,800 pixels). Data were obtained through a high-speed (1 Hz) data acquisition system (ThermaCAM Researcher 2001 HS; FLIR Systems) connected to a desktop personal computer.…”

“…In cold-intolerant patients with measureable peripheral nerve damage, a diminished thermoregulation was observed. 32 Currently, it is still unclear whether, and to what extent, cold intolerance is indeed related to abnormal rewarming and not, for example, to neurological changes or interaction between both. 20,33 The aim of this study was to investigate the correlation between cold intolerance and abnormal rewarming after a cold-stress test.…”

Cold-Induced Vasodilatation Following Traumatic Median or Ulnar Nerve Injury

“…This was also found in earlier studies where rewarming patterns after median and ulnar nerve injuries were measured, and where the investigators reported that a normal thermophysiological response did not exclude the presence of a subjective experience of cold intolerance. 24,25 Some limitations to the method used in the present study need to be addressed. First, we only addressed changes in thermoregulatory blood flow.…”