The regional distribution of sweating

Abstract

Kuno's monograph (1934) (Houghten, Teague & Miller, 1926) of 94°F. Every 20 min. during the first 2 hr. of each exposure the men performed a set amount of work. The work consisted of stepping on and off a stool, 1 ft. high, for 5 min., and the grade of work was altered by increasing the rate of stepping on and off. During the first exposure, the first three bouts of work were at such a rate that the men stepped on and off the stool twelve times per mi. and, for the last two, twenty-four times per min. During the next four or five exposures the first bout of work only was at the slower rate. In the cases of W. and McK. the duration of the work period was lengthened to 7j min. in the last three exposures.These rates of work were so designed as to allow the rectal temperature of each subject to rise to 102°F. or slightly over.Observations on sweating were made in the 50-60 min. following the last work period, at a time when the subject had a maximum rectal temperature and was sweating profusely.Sweat was collected from a number of small areas in each anatomical region by the following technique. The area selected was dried for 10 sec., and then a brass ring 7 cm. in diameter and 2 cm. deep was held lightly pressed down on the area. The ring carried a well-fitting lid, to minimize evaporation from the sweat accumulating within the ring. The ring prevented sweat trickling away from the area or reaching it from adjacent areas. After 2 min. the lid was removed, and, during the next J min., the sweat within the ring was mopped up by means of a previously dried and weighed cotton pledget. The increase in weight of the pledget was then determined.Thus sweat, accumulating in 2i min. within the ring from an area corresponding to a plane surface of 38-5 sq.cm., was collected. The actual skin surface under the ring is of course not a flat

Body mapping of sweating patterns in male athletes in mild exercise-induced hyperthermia

“…Areas of low sweat production were observed to be the sides of the chest, all extremities, and the internal femoral region. In contrast to the present data, Weiner (1945) found lower sweat rates on the posterior compared to anterior torso, however, the small sample size (n=3) may have been inadequate given the high variation in sweating between individuals. A medial to lateral decrease in sweat rate was observed across the torso in the present study and was similarly noted by Machado-Moreira et al (2008b) and Havenith et al (2008b), but not by Cotter et al (1995).…”

“…Those that have investigated regional sweating observed considerable variation between the sites tested (Cotter et al 1995;Fogarty et al 2007;Havenith et al 2008a;Hertzman 1957;Kuno 1956;Machado-Moreira et al 2008a, b, c;Ogata 1935;Smith et al 2007;Taylor et al 2006;Weiner 1945). These studies consistently found sweat rates of the sampled sites to be greatest on the torso.…”

“…Furthermore, due to sweat capsules being the predominant method for sweat measurement (Cotter et al 1995;Hertzman 1957;Kuno 1956;Machado-Moreira et al 2008a, b, c;Nadel et al 1971b;Ogata 1935;Smith et al 2007;Taylor et al 2006;Weiner 1945) most studies only measure a small number of sites using a limited surface area (3-12cm 2 ), typically covering less than 2% of the body region, and generalise this data to larger regions. A technique allowing the simultaneous measurement of a large number of sites across the body is therefore required to quantitatively assess the regional relationships.…”

Male and female upper body sweat distribution during running measured with technical absorbents

“…The absolute sweat rates 5 showed a large variation for the different zones within each sex group, and different zone 6 sweat rate ranges overlapped substantially. Nevertheless, significant differences in sweating 7 were observed. Overall, the effect of ZONE (within subjects) was highly significant 8 (p<0.0005), while the overall effect of SEX was not significant.…”

“…Also the development of more sophisticated sweating thermal manikins, which 4 are now able to simulate sweat production in different body zones, require such data, as do 5 developers of mathematical models of human thermoregulation, where they want to include 6 regional differences. The present study was initiated with these applications in mind, and will 7 attempt to chart regional sweat rate on the upper body, covering the whole torso skin area and 8 the upper arms. In addition, attention will be given on how these sweat rates are different 9 between a group of males and females and how the sex of the participants affects the sweat 10 distribution.…”