Impact of 24 Systemic Cryotherapy Treatments on the Rheological

and Morphological Properties of Blood in Healthy Men

M. Kepinska, Z. Szygula, A. Teleglow and Z. Dabrowski

University School of Physical Education in Krakow, al. Jana Pawla II 78, 31-571, Krakow, Poland

1 INTRODUCTION

Cryotherapy and cryostimulation have recently

become popular in the prevention and treatment of

musculoskeletal system overloads in sports

disciplines and sports medicine, as well as in

biological regeneration of healthy persons and in

increasing the immunity (Szygula et al 2014).

The aim of this paper was to assess the impact of

a series of whole body cryotherapy (WBC)

treatments on the rheological and morphological

properties of blood in healthy men.

2 MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study involved 10 healthy men, students of the

University School of Physical Education in Krakow,

Poland aged 22.1 ± 2.16. Each participant gave a

written assent before participating in the study,

according to the Declaration of Helsinki. The study

was approved by the local Ethics Committee

(Krakow District Medical Chamber, Poland). All

subjects took part in initial medical qualification in

order to eliminate those with potential

contraindications to WBC.

All the subjects were healthy and normotensive,

with average body height was 179.2 ± 6.4 cm,

weight 79.6 ± 8.8 kg and BMI 23.4 ± 2.6 kg/m

The control group consisted of the same persons

who had taken part in the project.

24 whole body cryotherapy treatments (3 times a

week, every second day, for 2 months) were

performed in a special cryogenic chamber at the

temperature of about -120°C for 3 minutes in the

Małopolskie Centrum Krioterapii in Krakow,

Poland.

To analyse the morphological and rheological

properties of blood, the blood was sampled

immediately before the first treatment (control blood

sample) and 24 hours after the last treatment. In the

blood were determined the rheological properties

(red blood cell deformability) and blood

morphology, including the number of leukocytes,

erythrocytes, hemoglobin, hematocrit, as well as the

mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular

volume and mean corpuscular hemoglobin

concentration, the platelet count and the red cell

volume distribution width, total cholesterol, HDL,

LDL and triglycerides and total protein.

RBC deformability was analyzed using a laser-

assisted optical rotational cell analyzer (LORCA;

Mechatronics, Hoorn, The Netherlands) which

measures elongation of the cells at increasing shear

stress.

The results were analysed using the Student t-test

and Wilcoxon’s matched pairs test was used for not-

normally distributed values in the Statistica 10

program (StatSoft, Poland), a statistically significant

difference p <0.05.

3 RESULTS

After 24 hours following the last systemic

cryotherapy treatment, there was recorded a

statistically significant decrease in the mean

corpuscular hemoglobin concentration, no changes

in the erythrocyte count and an increase in the mean

corpuscular volume. There was also observed an

increase in the mean platelet volume and in the

platelet large cell ratio, with no change in the

platelet count. No changes were found in the

rheological properties and other morphological

indicators of blood.

All results were within the physiological norms.

4 CONCLUSIONS

1. An increase in the mean corpuscular volume may

result from an increased number of reticulocytes in

the peripheral blood, by erythropoiesis stimulation.

2. Systemic whole body cryotherapy results in small

changes in the morphological properties of blood,

which stay within the the normal range.

Kepinska M., Szygula Z., Teleglow A. and Dabrowski Z..

Impact of 24 Systemic Cryotherapy Treatments on the Rheological and Morphological Properties of Blood in Healthy Men.

 2014 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)