Development and Application of a Device for Measuring the Warm/Cold Threshold.

本研究的目的是开发一种简便、快速测量人体皮肤阈值的新装置，并将其应用于测定年轻和老年女性受试者皮肤表面的热阈值分布。该装置由一个传感器探头、一个温度控制器、一个反应开关和一台个人电脑组成。探针表面的温度由peltier元件控制，首先调整到受试者测量部位的皮肤温度，然后以恒定的速率降低/增加，直到受试者感到冷/暖感觉并按下按钮。首先，该装置的基本能力，即考察了探针材料的影响和探针温度变化速度的影响，由于铜探针比铝探针在测试开始时将探针温度调整到皮肤温度的优势，因此采用了铜探针。探针温度的变化速度决定在0.1℃/秒，而不是0.3℃/秒。实验结果表明，该装置精度高，可靠性好。然后，将该装置应用于中老年妇女的冷热阈值调查。选取40例40 ~ 88岁健康女性，在环境温度28℃、相对湿度50%的条件下，测定26个身体部位的冷热阈值。20名年龄在20至25岁的女学生也在与对照组相同的条件下进行了测量。中老年妇女的冷/暖阈值大于青年妇女，且随年龄增长差异增大。主成分分析结果显示，第一个分量，即解释全身冷暖阈值敏感性强度的大小因子，在老年人中也较大。

The purpose of this study is to develop a new device for measuring the threshold of the human skin easily and quickly and to apply it for determining the distribution of the thermal threshold over the skin surface of young and elderly female subjects.The device consisted of a sensor probe, a thermo controller, a reaction switch and a personal computer. The temperature of the probe surface, which was controlled by a peltier element, was adjusted first to the skin temperature of the measuring site of the subject and then decreased/increased at a constant rate until the subject felt cold/warm sensation and pushed a buttonAt first, the fundamental ability of the device, that is, the effects of the probe materials and the effects of changing speed of the probe temperature were examined and a copper probe was adopted for its superiority over the aluminum probe in adjusting the probe temperature to the skin temperature at the beginning of the test. The changing speed of the probe temperature was decided at 0.1℃/sec rather than 0.3℃/sec. Under these experimental conditions the device showed high precision and good reliability.Next, the device, was applied to the investigation of the cold/warm thresholds in middle and elderly women. The cold/warm thresholds of forty healthy female subjects aged 40 to 88 years old were measured over 26 body regions under the condition of 28℃ ambient temperature and 50% RH. Twenty female students aged 20 to 25 years old were also measured under the same conditions as the control. The cold/warm thresholds for the middle elderly women were larger than those for young women and the difference increased with advancing age. As a result of the principal component analysis, the first component, a size factor which explained the intensity of the cold/warm thresholds sensitivity of the whole body was also large in the elderly.