Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine

Original Article

The General Characteristics and Results of the Cold Provocation Test in the Risk Group of HAVS: Jae Kook Yoon, Chang Sun Sim, Myoung Soon Oh, Joo Hyun Sung, Ji Ho Lee, Choong Ryeol Lee, Yangho Kim, Cheol In Yoo, Hun Lee; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2012;24(3):207-216. Published online September 30, 2012; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.2012.24.3.207

OBJECTIVES
The cold provocation test for diagnosing the vascular component in hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) is likely to be accepted as an objective test, and a few studies have been performed. However, controversy has continued regarding the diagnostic performance of this method. Although objective methods such as plethysmography and laser doppler flowmetry have been studied, they have not received as much attention as other diagnostic methods. Therefore, our study aim was to spread the awareness of HAVS by reporting the results of the cold provocation test in a hand-transmitted vibration exposure group.
METHODS
The study subjects were 549 workers who had been exposed to hand-transmitted vibrations and reported symptoms in their hands. While the subject immersed both their hands in 10degrees C water for 10 minutes, the skin temperature of 10 fingers was recorded from pre-immersion time to 20 minute postimmersion including 10 minutes immersion time. The recovery rates were calculated from the recorded skin temperatures. The 'decreased recovery rate' criteria were less than 30% at 5 minutes post-immersion and 60% at 10 minute post-immersion.
RESULTS
Of the subjects, 69.1% and 30.9% had more severe symptoms in the right and left hands, respectively. The mean finger skin temperature of the right hand after cold-water immersion for 10 minutes was approximately 10degrees C, which increased gradually with time, but they did not reach the baseline temperature at 20 minutes post-immersion. The deviations of the skin temperature in the subjects were higher in the recovery phase than in the baseline and cold immersion phase. The 3rd finger of both hands showed the lowest 5-minute recovery rate among the fingers examined, and the left 4th finger and right 3rd finger showed the lowest 10-minute recovery rate. Of the subjects, 37.6% and 10.4% of subjects showed a lower recovery rate at 5 and 10 minutes in at least one finger, respectively, while 10.2% showed a lower recovery rate at both 5 and 10 minutes simultaneously in at least one finger.
CONCLUSIONS
The larger deviations in the recovery phase than in the other phases indicated that interindividual differences are more prominent in the recovery phase. There might be no benefit in observing the finger skin temperature for an additional 10 minutes after 10 minutes post-immersion. Overall, approximately 10% of the subjects in the HAVS risk group had HAVS.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

Technetium-99m hand perfusion scintigraphy (Raynaud’s scan) as a method of verification in hand arm vibration syndrome: a review
Taewoong Ha, Hyeoncheol Oh, Jungwon Kim
Annals of Occupational and Environmental Medicine.2022;[Epub] CrossRef
Trend of Human Vibration Research in Korea
Hee-Sok Park
Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea.2013; 32(4): 293. CrossRef

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Original Article

Evaluation of Finger Skin Temperature by Cold Provocation Test for Diagnosis of Hand-Arm Vibration Syndrome: Cheol In Yoo, Ji Ho Lee, Choong Ryeol Lee, Hun Lee, Young Hee Choi, Yang Ho Kim; Korean Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine 2002;14(2):124-133. Published online June 30, 2002; DOI: https://doi.org/10.35371/kjoem.2002.14.2.124

Abstract PDF

OBJECTIVES
Various objective tests have been widely used worldwide for diagnosing the hand-arm vibration syndrome. Among these, the cold provocation test has been frequently used to confirm the presence of Raynaud's phenomenon. This study was carried out in order to evaluate finger skin temperature by cold provocation test(10 degrees C for 10 minute) for the diagnosis of hand-arm vibration syndrome METHODS: Fifty-eight workers who had been exposed to local vibration were examined. Information concerning age, occupation, types of vibration tools used, presence of subjective symptoms such as vibration induced white finger(VWF), and numbness and tingling were collected. The subjects were classified into three groups according to their symptoms(Vascular, Neural, and No symptom group). In order to examine the applicability of the cold provocation test using water at 10 degrees C for 10 minute, we compared finger skin temperature between the groups.
RESULTS
The mean value of the finger skin temperature at 5 minutes and 10 minutes after cold provocation as well as the recovery rate in the vascular group were significantly lower than that seen in the other groups.
CONCLUSIONS
The evaluation of finger skin temperature by cold provocation test is very useful method for the diagnosis of hand-arm vibration syndrome. The test results will assist in confirming the diagnosis of the hand-arm vibration syndrome.

Citations

Citations to this article as recorded by

The Health Effects of Whole Body Vibration
Soo-Jin Lee, Soo-Yong Roh
Journal of the Ergonomics Society of Korea.2013; 32(4): 297. CrossRef

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