Affiliations: [a]
Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, Padova, Italy
| [b]
UOC of Angiology, Azienda Ospedale Università di Padova, Padova, Italy
Correspondence:
[*]
Corresponding author: Andrea Bagno, Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Padova, via Marzolo 9,35131 Padova, Italy. Tel.: +39 049 8275004; Fax: +39 049 8275555; E-mail: andrea.bagno@unipd.it.
Abstract: This work elucidates the mechanisms of skin microcirculation response to local heating at 44°C in vasculopathic patients. Laser Doppler and tcpO2 were simultaneously acquired. Patients were selected on the basis of tcpO2: Group A <30 mmHg; Group B 30–50 mmHg; Group C >50 mmHg. The wavelet analysis of signal oscillations displays six frequency intervals. Each interval is assigned to a specific cardiovascular activity. The contributions of cardiac, myogenic and neurogenic activities were selectively detected. Thermal stimulation increased relative amplitude in all patients: heart activity by +103.26% in A, +162.84% in B, +454.54% in C; myogenic activity by +52.45% in A, +38.51% in B, +156.19% in C; neurogenic activity +43.36% in A, +74.15% in B, +242.42% in C. Thermal stimulation increased relative power in all patients: heart activity by +365.30% in A, +473.72% in B, +1393.77% in C; myogenic activity by +106.92% in A, +66.03% in B, +380.18% in C; neurogenic activity by +77.00% in A, +162.65% in B, +771.93% in C. This work demonstrates that the spectral analysis allows extracting from Laser Doppler signals more information than that can be gained by solely investigating perfusion values over time.
Keywords: Microcirculation, wavelet transform, local heating
