Faculty of Health Sciences
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Item The effect of a cooling cuff and moist ice pack on radial artery blood flow and lumen diameter(2014) Gernetzky, Joshua; O'Connor, Laura; Varatharajullu, DesireeBackground: When a soft tissue injury occurs the blood vessels and surrounding tissue are damaged leading to haemorrhaging and inflammation. Cryotherapy (cold therapy) is generally acknowledged as the preferable treatment by manual therapists during this immediate post-traumatic period of an injury. Cryotherapy has been shown to result in vasoconstriction decreasing the rate of blood flow which has a favourable effect on inflammation and pain. The commercially available cooling cuff is a relatively new cryotherapy modality offering a mechanism of cooling that does not require freezing and is easy to use. The polymer granules within the cooling cuff are activated by emersion in water therefore freezing is not required making the cooling cuff readily available compared to more traditional forms of cryotherapy. Aim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of a moist ice pack and a commercially available cooling cuff radial artery blood flow (cm.s-1) and radial artery lumen diameter (mm) after 15 minutes of application. Method: This study was a pre-test post-test design utilising 43 asymptomatic participants that were randomly allocated to one of two groups. Each group either received a standard moist ice pack or a commercially available cooling cuff, placed on the ventral surface of the participants forearm, over the radial artery, for a duration of 15 minutes. Measurements were taken with a Doppler ultrasound to determine radial artery blood flow and lumen diameter, prior to the intervention and 15 minutes after the cryotherapy application. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS VERSION 20 (IBM Corp. Released 2010.IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 19.0. Armonk, New York: IBM Corp.). Statistical significance was set at a p< 0.05 level. Intra-group and inter-group comparisons were measured using repeated measures ANOVA testing. Results: Both the moist ice pack and commercially available cooling cuff resulted in a significant decrease in radial artery blood flow (p< 0.001) after 15 minutes of application with no significant changes being observed in radial artery diameter Conclusions: The commercially available cooling cuff resulted in a similar effect on radial artery blood flow and lumen diameter as moist ice, indicating that the commercially available cooling cuff may be utilised in the acute phase of an injury to alter blood flow.Item A double-blinded placebo-controlled investigation into the effect of therapeutic ultrasound on radial artery blood flow(2009) Varatharajullu, Desiree; Shaik, JunaidAim: To investigate the effect of therapeutic and sham ultrasound on radial artery blood flow (m.s-1) and radial arterial lumen diameter (mm). Subjects: Fifty healthy asymptomatic volunteers between the ages of 18-38 years. Methodology: The subjects were randomly allocated into one of five intervention groups (A-E). Group A received continuous ultrasound at 0.2 W.cm-² for 5 minutes, Group B received pulse ultrasound at 0.2 W.cm-² for 5 minutes, Group C received continuous ultrasound at 1.5 W.cm-² for 5 minutes, Group D received pulse ultrasound at 1.5 W.cm-² for 5 minutes and Group E received sham ultrasound at 0 W.cm-² for 5 minutes. Baseline radial artery blood flow (m.s-1) and radial artery lumen diameter (mm) readings were taken prior to the commencement of the therapeutic or sham ultrasound application using a Doppler ultrasound. At four minutes of application (during the therapeutic or sham ultrasound application), another set of blood flow and arterial lumen diameter measurements were taken. The final blood flow and arterial lumen diameter measurements were taken one minute after the therapeutic or sham ultrasound application was stopped. Results: The mean (± SD) radial artery blood flow and radial artery lumen diameter at baseline was 0.197 (± 0.060) m.s-1 and 2.4 (± 0.6) mm respectively. In Group A, the mean (± SD) radial artery blood flow during ultrasound application and one-minute after ultrasound application was 0.193 (± 0.070) m.s-1 and 0.179 (± 0.073) m.s-1 respectively. The mean (± SD) radial artery lumen diameter in Group A at the two time intervals was 2.2 (± 0.5) mm and 2.2 (± 0.3) mm respectively. In Group B, the mean (± SD) radial artery blood flow during ultrasound application and one-minute after ultrasound application was 0.187 (± 0.067) m.s-1 and 0.195 (± 0.041) m.s-1 respectively. The mean (± SD) radial artery lumen diameter in Group B at the two time intervals was 2.4 (± 0.4) mm and 2.3 (± 0.5) mm respectively. In Group C, the mean (± SD) radial artery blood flow during ultrasound application and one-minute after ultrasound application was 0.225 (± 0.088) m.s-1 and 0.186 (± 0.071) m.s-1 respectively. The mean (± SD) radial artery lumen diameter in Group C at the two time intervals was 2.4 (± 0.7) mm and 2.7 (± 0.8) mm respectively. In Group D, the mean (± SD) radial artery blood flow during ultrasound application and one-minute after ultrasound application was 0.215 (± 0.080) m.s-1 and 0.200 (± 0.081) m.s-1 respectively. The mean (± SD) radial artery lumen diameter in Group iv D at the two time intervals was 2.4 (± 0.8) mm and 2.4 (± 0.7) mm respectively. In Group E, the mean (± SD) radial artery blood flow during ultrasound application and one-minute after ultrasound application was 0.200 (± 0.067) m.s-1 and 0.182 (± 0.075) m.s-1 respectively. The mean (± SD) radial artery lumen diameter in Group E at the two time intervals was 2.5 (± 0.7) mm and 2.3 (± 0.5) mm respectively. There was no significant change in radial artery blood flow and radial artery lumen diameter over time in any individual group or between groups (p > 0.05; repeated measures ANOVA). There was an overall weak positive correlation between radial artery blood flow and radial artery lumen diameter at baseline (r = 0.508), during (r = 0.541) and after (r = 0.532) the therapeutic or sham ultrasound application. Conclusion: The results of this study showed that continuous, pulse or sham ultrasound had no significant effect on radial artery blood flow and radial artery lumen diameter. Furthermore, active ultrasound (continuous and pulse) was not superior to sham ultrasound in significantly affecting blood flow in a muscular artery.