Does Increased Environmental Temperature Affect Skin Tissue Dielectric Constant?

Nova Southeastern University, Davie, Florida, USA

Does Increased Environmental Temperature Affect Skin Tissue Dielectric Constant?Garry Berdichevskiy OMS-I, Cindy Lorenzo-Valido OMS-I, Marcos Clavijo Fernandez OMS-II, Harvey Mayrovitz PhD, Dr. Kiran C. Patel College of Osteopathic Medicine and College of Medical Sciences Objective. To determine the effect of elevated environmental temperature on TDC values. Background. Because tissue dielectric constant (TDC) values are highly dependent on local tissue fluid content they are used to detect and track localized edema and lymphedema. TDC measurements are done by touching the skin with a probe for less than 10 seconds but the effect of recent prior exposure to elevated temperatures is unclear. It was hypothesized that via heat-activation of eccrine sweat glands, TDC values would rise with increases in environmental temperature due to increased fluid in the glands and possible surface sweating. Methods. TDC was measured in 24 young adults their thenar eminence and anterior forearm in triplicate prior to heating, during a 20-minute whole-body heating interval and post heating. During heating, the environmental temperature was increased gradually to a maximum of 42oC. Results: Increasing environmental temperature from (mean±SD) 23.3±1.6oC to 41.5±1.3oC increased forearm and thenar-eminence skin temperatures to 37.8±0.5oC and 37.9±0.4oC respectively. Corresponding forearm changes in TDC values were at the forearm from 30.7 ± 4.6 to 36.3±5.7 (18.2%) and at the thenar-eminence from 34.7±4.9 to 45.1±5.5 (30%). Post heating measurements allowed the calculation of the time to recovery to baseline TDC values. Conclusions: Results show TDC values increase with increasing environmental temperature. TDC recovery-rates indicate temperature-related TDC variability in patients is minimized with a pre-measurement-wait-time of about 15 minutes after their arrival in the office. For patients with bandages or compression-sleeves, TDC measurements should be made no sooner than 15 minutes after covering removal.