Abstract
Fifty three previous chain-saw operators, aged 30 and over, under the juristdiction of M Forestry Bureau were examined for fingertip skin temperature after 60 seconds immersion in cold water (4°C), and later recovery of fingertip skin temperature. The subjects included 14 workers with Raynoud's phenomenon history (R (+) group) and 39 workers without such history (R (-) group)
The main findings were as follows :
1) The R (+) group could not be differentiated from the R (-) group by the recovery curve which was obtaind by plotting the fingertip skin temperature at 1 minute intervals for 10 minutes after the end of immersion.
2) The recovery of the initial fingertip skin temperature tended to differ quantitatively in R (+) and R (-) groups.
In view of this, Tt was calculated by the following formula :
Tt= (T1+T2+T3) -3T0
To was the fingertip skin temperature at the end of immersion. T1, T2 and T3 were the fingertip skin temperatures at 1, 2, and 3 minutes after the end of immersion, respectively.
In this results, Ttof less than 11 was found in 13 cases of the R (+) group (92.9%) and in 17 cases of the R (-) group (43.6%). The difference between two rates significant (P <0.01). The sensitivity value in the above division was 92.9% and the specificity value was 56.4%.
Thus Tt was found to be a effective index for the classification into R (+) and R (-).
