Study On The Physiological Effects Caused By Garment Pressure

Pressure comfort is an important factor for evaluating garments. Nowadays, as more and more people wearing various tight-fit garments, such as jeans and stockings, the safety and comfort of these garments begin to draw more and more attentions from consumers, clothing designers and researchers. In this study, it focused on the skin blood flow at the lower limb under external pressure, to explore the physiological effect of garment pressure. Five female graduate students were recruited to be subjects for this study. Pressures of various magnitudes were exerted on ankles or calves respectively by using sphygmomanometer, under which the pressure and skin blood flow were measured simultaneously. The Wilcoxon signed rank test was used to evaluate differences in skin blood flow when pressure was loaded or not on the lower limbs. The obtained results are as follows: the pressure effect on underlying skin blood flow was depended on the different magnitudes of pressure, loading position.Skin blood flow increased when pressure of certain level was loaded at ankle or calf; however, as the pressure magnitude exceeding certain range, it turned to decrease. Moreover, ankles seemed to bear much higher pressure than calves. In order to further explore the skin blood flow control mechanism of pressure, wavelet transform was used to analyze the signals of skin blood flow, the differences of myogenic response when pressure was loaded or not were found. (The smooth-muscle cells in the vessel walls respond continually to the changes in introvascular pressure, which is known as the myogenic response). The results in this study can provide theoretical guidance for the medical practice, and can provide references for the design of tight-fit garments.