In the master's thesis, we observed the difference in the frequency content of microcirculation in the foot at frequencies lower than the frequency of heart rhythm (i.e., the low-frequency content), between socks made of material with built-in ceramic microparticles and socks from the control material without these microparticles.
The basis for the master's thesis was the data from a study carried out at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, University of Ljubljana, entitled »The effect of socks with built-in ceramic microparticles on the microcirculation of the foot« and was aimed at establishing the existence of an objectively measurable difference in microcirculation in the foot with a sock with build-in ceramic microparticles and a control sock. In the study, a small but statistically significant difference in skin microcirculation was observed, but the mechanism of action was not explained. In the master's thesis, therefore, we use one of the approaches that could contribute to the interpretation of possible mechanisms of functioning of ceramic microparticles embedded in the fabric and their impact on microcirculation.
Microcirculation measurements were performed using a laser Doppler blood flow meter. For further processing of signals, a continuous wavelet transform was used, which allowed the observation of the signal characteristics simultaneously in the time and frequency domain. We observed the frequency content of the signals in five characteristic low frequency bands, which have already been shown to contain predominantly contributions of five different physiological mechanisms for regulating local blood flow.
Even though we detected statistically significant differences between the used socks materials in certain cases, these differences were not consistent, therefore, with the results obtained, we cannot further explain or underline the observed differences from the aforementioned study.
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