Non-invasive Muscle Temperature Control during Cooling

Abstract

The aim of this work was to investigate the possibilities of using the non-invasive method to control the temperature of deep layers in limb tissues during cooling, using thermistors as temperature sensors.The invasive temperature control of the deep tissue layers is not always acceptable to the test subject. The temperature distribution was simulated using computer software, when the limb was cooled in the +15 C temperature water bath and frozen by adding the ice pack. The temperature was measured experimentally by using thermistor as a temperature sensor. The uncertainty of calibrated temperature transducer was ±0.05 C. The 3 cm thickness layer of thermal insulation separated the temperature sensor from the cooling agent.After 30 min of cooling the tissue surface temperature at the sensor attachment point was 31.5±0.65 C. During modeling it was determined, that in case when temperature underneath the sensor was 31.5 C, then the tissue temperature in 30 mm depth should be 31.9 C, what corresponds to the temperature values determined by other researchers using invasive measurements under analogous conditions. On the basis of the study results the structure of a hand-held device for control of temperature in deeper muscle layers via measurement of the skin surface temperature was offered.

Development of Body-Tissue Temperature-Control Transducer

“…For measuring temperature in deeper tissue layers, needle thermometers are usually used, which are inserted 2–4 cm in depth [6,30,31,32,33,34,35,36,37]. They must be sterilized before use and disinfected after use.…”

“…The above-discussed methods and gears were used to measure body, body core, and skin temperature, but we did not find any research that proves that these methods and gears could be used to determine the temperature at a certain tissue level. This is required for the research on the effects of cooling on muscle properties [31,32], or of cooling for treatment [4,6,32,33,34,35,36,37].…”

“…It was shown in Reference [31] that skin surface temperature during cooling versus time change almost linearly. It was found in Reference [6] that when the surface (skin) temperature varied linearly in time during cooling, temperature of muscles at 2 cm depth also varied linearly with time.…”