Changes in lower-leg blood flow during warm-, cold-, and contrast-water therapy

Abstract

Objective: To examine arterial blood flow in the lower leg during warm-, cold-, and contrast-water therapy.

Design: A crossover trial with repeated measurements on the dependent variable.

Setting: Hydrotherapy area of a climate-controlled sports medicine clinic.

Participants: A volunteer sample of 24 healthy men.

Intervention: Four randomly assigned treatments were performed on each subject on consecutive days.

Main outcome measure: Arterial blood flow (mL per 100mL/min) from baseline measurements were recorded in a 3-minute to 1-minute on-off ratio for 20 minutes by using strain gauge plethysmography.

Results: Contrast therapy produced fluctuations in blood flow throughout the 20-minute treatment. Warm-water therapy (40 degrees C) resulted in significant (P < .001) changes in blood flow compared with the control and contrast conditions. Cold-water therapy (13 degrees C) did not produce significantly decreased blood flow as compared with the control condition.

Conclusions: We suggest that further studies involving contrast therapy to the lower leg in injured populations be carried out to determine whether our initial findings are clinically relevant.