RESPONSES TO WHOLE-BODY AND FINGER COOLING BEFORE AND AFTER AN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION

Eight subjects, who were indoor workers and not habitually exposed to cold, spent 53 days in Antarctica. They did mainly geological field wo rk often requiring the use of bare hands. The effects of the expeditio n on responses to a whole body cold exposure test, a finger blood flow test and a cold pressor test were studied. After the expedition, duri ng whole-body cooling the time for the onset of shivering was delayed by 36 min (P<0.001) and forearm and thigh temperatures were 1.5-degree s-C higher (P<0.05) at the end of exposure. During local cooling of th e finger with 10-degrees-C perfusion, finger vascular resistance was 1 4.9 (SEM 6.6) mmHg . ml-1 . min . 100 ml (P<0.05) lower and finger tem perature 3.9 (SEM 0.8)-degrees-C higher (P<0.01). However, the decreas e in rectal temperature during whole-body cooling was unaltered and th e response to a cold pressor test was unchanged. The data would indica te that partial acclimatization to cold had been developed. Changes in forearm temperature were correlated with the duration of cold exposur e of the hands (P<0.05) and finger vascular resistance and finger temp erature were correlated with responses to cooling before the expeditio n (P<0.001 and P<0.01, respectively). Because the ambient temperature was not clearly lower in Antarctica in comparison to Finland, the reas on for the changes developed seems to be the increased exposure to the outdoor climate in Antarctica.