Effect of wearing gloves on the thermal balance of Korean XXXX wet-suit divers in cold water.

@entity1 @entity5758 @entity26 @entity393
Effect of wearing @entity5758 gloves on the thermal exchanges of wet-suited divers was studied in 8 Korean diving @entity1 . Subjects, clad with 5-6-mm-thick neoprene wet suits (jacket, pants, and boots) either with or without wearing 3-mm-thick neoprene gloves, were immersed for 3 h in water of critical temperature (17.3 degrees +/- 0.8 degree C) while the rectal and skin (chest, leg, arm, and hand) temperatures and @entity26 consumption were measured. Overall thermal insulation of the subject plus suit was calculated from the rectal-to-water temperature difference divided by the estimated rate of skin @entity393 . The skin @entity393 was assumed to equal metabolic heat production minus respiratory @entity393 , corrected for changes in heat storage when mean body temperature changed. All measurements were carried out in a resting condition. During the 3rd h of immersion, the rectal temperature was lower with gloves (delta Tre = 0.30 degree +/- 0.04 degree C; P less than 0.05) whereas metabolic heat production was not significantly different. Consequently, the total thermal insulation was nearly 16% lower with gloves than without gloves. In both the hands and forearms, the regional heat flux determined directly using a heat flux transducer was higher and the thermal insulation index was lower with gloves than without gloves. These results indicate that in wet-suited subjects resting in cold (17 degrees C) water gloves do not provide additional protection against @entity393 , but rather decrease the efficiency of thermoregulatory mechanisms. We suggest that sensory input from cold receptors in the distal extremities is particularly important in thermoregulation during immersion in cold water.
