"Sweat may impair skin carbon dioxide (PCO2) dependent discrimination in trauma patients"

Abstract

Assessing internal bleeding from trauma is difficult. Non-invasive discriminationrs between the physiologic changes of exercise (or excitement) and injury could be useful, especially at locations with limited access to definitive medical care. In previous studies, we observed skin PCO2 parralleling or converging toward end-tidal PCO2 during exercise and diverging during blood loss. Since temperature affects skin blood flow, we investigated the effects of running at different temperatures on skin PCO2.