Judith A. Allen

The regional distribution of emotional sweating in man

1. Emotional sweating was induced in normal subjects by mental arithmetic at environmental temperatures of 29 and 26° C and estimated from continuous records of body weight loss.

The effect of β-adrenoceptor blockade on human sweating

1 Changes in cutaneous water loss were followed by continuously monitoring total body weight loss. 2 Sweating was induced in normal subjects by raising the environmental temperature or by subjecting them to the emotional stress of mental arithmetic. 3 Propranolol in a dosage of 0·15 mg/kg body weight intravenously had no significant effect on either thermal or emotional sweating, whereas thermal sweating was completely blocked temporarily by administration of atropine 2·4 mg intravenously. 4 It is concluded that β‐adrenoceptor blockade has no effect on physiological sweating in normal people.

Sweat responses of a hyperhidrotic subject

Sweating was measured in a subject presenting with palmar hyperhidrosis. The skin of his whole body appeared to sweat excessively in response to mental but not to thermal stress, compared with normal subjects.

An objective assessment of the sudomotor response after thoracoscopic sympathectomy.

OBJECTIVE Thoracoscopic sympathectomy has become an accepted therapeutic option for palmar hyperhidrosis. Objective assessment of sweat output after sympathectomy, however, has not been reported to date. We report for the first time sweat output measurements after sympathectomy during a 3-year postoperative period. METHODS Thoracoscopic sympathectomy was performed by division of T2 and T3 sympathetic ganglia in 17 healthy adult patients with no comorbidities. Preoperative and postoperative sweat measurements were done at 29 degrees C (below sweat threshold, at baseline, after conversation, and after a mental arithmetic challenge) and at 40 degrees C (baseline and after exercise) with the ventilated capsule technique in left palm, sole, and chest wall. Serial postoperative measurements were conducted at 1 and 6 months and 1, 2, and 3 years. RESULTS Sweat output fell significantly after sympathectomy relative to preoperative levels under all experimental conditions (P < .001, analysis of variance) in the left palm. Differences in sweat outputs in the left palm were statistically significant between groups at baseline and postoperatively after mental arithmetic challenge and exercise at 40 degrees C (P < .05, analysis of variance). Compensatory increases in the sweat outputs from the left sole and chest were observed after sympathectomy. No patients had recurrence of preoperative sweat output values at follow-up. CONCLUSION According to objective sweat output measurements, thoracoscopic sympathectomy results in long-term control of palmar hyperhidrosis. This evaluation method is valuable in investigating recurrence of symptoms or compensatory hyperhidrosis after sympathectomy, providing a robust and objective criterion for planning intervention.

The effect of antidiuretic hormone on human sweating

1. Changes in insensible perspiration and sweating were followed in normal subjects by continuously monitoring total body weight loss in environmental temperatures of 18, 29 and 37° C.

The effect of pain on human sweating

1. Attempts were made to induce emotional sweating in normal subjects by subjecting them to painful stimuli such as compression of pins on the forearm skin, immersion of the fingers in iced water, compression of the thoracic cage by rib calipers and ischaemic exercise of the forearm muscles.

Treatment of severe Raynaud's phenomenon with prostaglandin E1

SummaryA forty year old female presented with severe Raynauds phenomenon in her hands and feet associated with scleroderma. After assessment of hand and foot blood flow with water filled plethysmographs, prostaglandin E1 was infused intravenously for 72 hours. Peripheral blood flows were measured again immediately following the infusion and 31 days later.

Vascular responses to intravenous catecholamines in hands and forearms with normal and with increased skin blood flow

SummaryBlood flow responses to intravenous adrenaline and noradrenaline infusions were compared in hands and forearms with normal resting blood flow (plethysmograph temperature 35°C) and in hands and forearms where skin blood flow had been raised by local heating (42°C), body heating or local application of rubefacient. The vasodilator response to adrenaline (10μg.min-1) seen in forearms with normal resting blood flow was not significantly affected by raising skin blood flow 2–3 fold by any of the three methods. In the hands, intravenous adrenaline caused pronounced vasoconstriction in both the control hands and in those with augmented skin circulation, and there was little difference between the magnitude of the vasoconstrictor responses in the normal and vasodilated hands. There was little difference between the vasoconstrictor responses to intravenous noradrenaline (5μg.min-1) in hands and forearms with control blood flow levels and in those with skin blood flow raised by any of the three methods. So the results show that the skin vessels dilated by local heat, body heating and application of rubefacient are little affected by circulatingα receptor agonists and that adrenaline will still produce a net vasodilator response in the forearm at high levels of skin blood flow.

The effect of a water load on cutaneous water loss in man

1. Ingestion of 1 l. water at 37° C had no effect on the rate of water loss from forearm and hand skin although ingestion of a similar volume at 16° C significantly decreased the rate.