Fig 1.
We have designed a clinically relevant experiment in healthy young participants and in groups at-risk of PUs (i.e., elderly and spinal cord injured, SCI), which will determine how different levels of cooling [i.e. no cooling (38°C), mild cooling (16°C), and strong cooling (16°C)] alter the skin’ microvascular, inflammatory, structural, and perceptual responses to sustained pressure-induced ischemia and reactive hyperaemia. From an applied standpoint, the research will identify physiological and perceptual cooling thresholds (i.e. level of cooling, modulations via age and clinical status), which could be used as design parameters for the development of user-centred medical devices and thermal wearables. LDF: Laser Doppler Flowmetry; OCT: Optical Coherence Tomography.
Table 1.
Participant inclusion and exclusion criteria.
Fig 2.
Standardise pressure protocol delivered over the sacrum.
The thermal probe will be used to deliver a standardised 60mmHg pressure protocol to evoke pronounced tissue ischaemia under 3 thermal conditions, i.e. a control skin temperature evoking no cooling (i.e. 38°C) and two cooling temperatures of 24°C and 16°C. During the protocol, a series of non-invasive measurements will be conducted [i.e. skin blood flow via LDF; inflammatory biomarker sampling from skin sebum; structural and functional imaging via Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT); perceptual assessment of subjective thermal sensation, comfort, and acceptance] at different time points (identified in the diagram by ↑).