Abstract
The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between the changes in intramuscular blood volume (IMBV) under continuous shortwave diathermy (CSWD) and compare them with the electric hot pack (EHP). The subjects consisted of 41 healthy adults, who received one of three interventions: CSWD (n=17), EHP (n=12), or no intervention (Controls: n=12). Analyses were done of the values obtained five minutes preceding the intervention (T1), during the intervention (T2), and after the intervention (T3). CSWD was applied with an output of 80 W. Both CSWD and EHP were applied for 10 min. Changes in IMBV of the right medial gastrocnemius muscle were evaluated using near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). Oxy-hemoglobin (oxy-Hb), deoxy-hemoglobin (deoxy-Hb), and total-hemoglobin (total-Hb) were measured using NIRS. At T2 in the CSWD trial, the integration values of oxy-Hb and total-Hb were significantly increased compared with those of the controls (p<0.01), and they were significantly increased compared with those of both the controls and the EHP trial (p<0.01) at T3 of the CSWD trial. The study results verified that IMBV increases as a result of the local thermal effect of CSWD, and also suggest that CSWD is more effective at enhancing IMBV than EHP.
