Sustained Compression with a Pneumatic Cuff on Skeletal Muscles Promotes Muscle Blood Flow and Relieves Muscle Stiffness.

Masaaki Nakajima,Akemi Endo,Tomoka Tsuro

doi:10.3390/ijerph19031692

Abstract

(1) Purpose: This study aimed to examine whether a pneumatic cuff could promote muscle blood flow and improve muscle stiffness by continuously compressing muscles with air pressure in healthy college students. (2) Method: Twenty-one healthy collegiate students participated in this study. The probe of the near-infrared spectrometer was attached to the upper surface of the left gastrocnemius muscle, and a cuff was wrapped around the left lower leg. The cuff was inflated to 200 mmHg. After 10 min, the cuff was deflated, and the patient rested for 10 min. Muscle stiffness and fatigue were assessed before and after the intervention. (3) Results: During 10 min of continuous compression, StO2 continued to decrease until seven min of compression. After 10 min of continuous compression, StO2 was 30.8 ± 10.4%, which was approximately half of 69.2 ± 6.1% at rest. After the release of the pneumatic cuff compression, the StO2 remained higher than that at rest from 1 to 10 min. Muscle hardness was 19.0 ± 8.0 before intervention was 8.7 ± 4.8 after the intervention. Muscle fatigue was 6.6 ± 1.7 cm before the intervention and 4.0 ± 1.6 cm after the intervention. (4) Conclusions: This study suggests that sustained muscle compression using a pneumatic cuff can promote muscle blood flow and improve muscle stiffness and fatigue.

Highlights

CO2 is known as a vasodilator and has been clinically applied as an artificial carbon dioxide spring bath
(4) Conclusions: This study suggests that sustained muscle compression using a pneumatic cuff can promote muscle blood flow and improve muscle stiffness and fatigue
The purpose of this study was to evaluate whether continuous compression of muscles using a pneumatic cuff for a certain period of time promotes blood flow after release, using a near-infrared spectrometer

Summary

Introduction

CO2 is known as a vasodilator and has been clinically applied as an artificial carbon dioxide spring bath. As the vasodilatation effect of artificial carbon dioxide springs is a concentration gradient effect [5], CO2 that enters percutaneously has a great effect on relaxing the vascular smooth muscles in the shallow skin layer and promoting blood flow. A method was developed to utilize the CO2 generated by the metabolism of muscle cells to increase the CO2 concentration in the muscle and relax the vascular smooth muscle by keeping the muscle under restricted blood flow for a certain period (Figure 1). This method involves manually applying pressure to the muscle and holding it there for a period of time. Nakajima reported that when this new method was applied to patients with OA of the knee, it promoted muscle blood flow and provided excellent pain relief [6]

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