A Portable Heat-Exchange-Based System for Assessing Digital Vascular Response to Cold.

StudyLa Medicina del lavoro· Aug 2026

A Portable Heat-Exchange-Based System for Assessing Digital Vascular Response to Cold.

Carlotta Massotti, Paolo Bertoli, Marcella Mauro … Massimo Bovenzi

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Occupational & Environmental MedicineStudy

Portable thermal-power device tracks finger blood flow during cold-induced vasoconstriction testing.

A Portable Heat-Exchange-Based System for Assessing Digital Vascular Response to Cold.

Carlotta Massotti … Massimo Bovenzi

La Medicina del lavoro · Aug 2026

Background

Digital vascular assessment is relevant in occupational medicine, but current measurement methods may be complex and poorly portable.

Purpose

To validate a portable heat-exchange-based system for assessing cold-induced digital vascular response, using strain-gauge plethysmography as the reference method.

Methods

Twenty healthy volunteers, 10 males and 10 females, underwent five subsequent sessions.

n = Twenty healthy volunteers, 10 males

Results

more blood flow to the finger meant more heat loss from the device

Baseline FBF

1.23ml/100

Cooled FBF

0.98ml/100

More results

Local cooling induced a significant vascular response, with finger blood flow decreasing from 1.23 to 0.98 ml/100 ml/s (p<0.0001).

Under cooling, thermal power showed lower within-subject variability than finger blood flow (wsCV ≈0.19 vs ≈0.64).

More results

BMI was positively associated with thermal power (4.40 mW per kg/m², p=0.007), whereas age and sex were not significant predictors.

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Conclusion

These findings support the interpretation of thermal power as a perfusion-related thermal descriptor with potential applicability in occupational health surveillance. Further validation in subjects with digital vascular disorders is needed.

A Portable Heat-Exchange-Based System for Assessing Digital Vascular Response to Cold.

A Portable Heat-Exchange-Based System for Assessing Digital Vascular Response to Cold.

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