Influence of Muscle Cross-sectional Area in Skin Temperature

Eduardo Borba Neves

1,2

, Fabio Bandeira

, Leandra Ulbricht

, José Vilaça-Alves

and V.M. Reis

PPGEB, Federal Technological University of Paraná, Curitiba, PR, Brazil

DGP, Brazilian Army, Brasília, Brazil

CIDESD, University of Trás-os-Montes e Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal

Keywords: Thermography, Body Temperature, Skin Temperature, Musculoskeletal System.

Abstract: The present study aimed to determine the correlations among the arm subcutaneous fat percentage (SFP),

arm muscle cross-sectional area (MCSA), arm total cross-sectional area (TCSA), and the difference between

core temperature and skin temperature in biceps and triceps areas, measured using thermography. This

research focused on a cross-sectional study using a quantitative approach with participants consisting of

young, untrained volunteers from the city of Curitiba, Brazil. The total sample size was 20 volunteers

including 13 males and 7 females. A statistical correlation between MSCA and core and skin ∆ temperature

for the right and left biceps (r = -0.487, p = 0.030 / r = -0.518, p = 0.019), and also between TCSA core and

skin ∆ temperature for the right and left biceps (r = -0.513, p = 0.021 / r = -0.554, p = 0.011) was identified.

These results confirmed that arm muscle cross-sectional area influenced skin temperature at the biceps

region. This result can also be generalized to other areas of the skin, which show similar characteristics to

the studied area.

1 INTRODUCTION

Thermography use in the biomedical field has

increased significantly in the last decade (Bandeira

et al., 2012, Sanches et al., 2013, Bandeira et al.,

2014). Health professionals have used thermal

variations or absolute temperatures of the regions of

interest (ROI) to determine or assist in

diagnosis(Bandeira et al., 2014).

Since thermography measures the infrared

radiation emitted by the surface of the skin, and

heat-producing regions (heart and muscle) are

located in the innermost part of the body, there are

some factors that may influence the conduction of

internal heat to the skin’s surface. Bandeira et al.

(2012) suggested that one of these factors is the

layer of subcutaneous fat. Colman and Beraldo

(2010), Roschel et al. (2011), and Czuba et al.

(2013) suggest that the level of physical training

induces morphological changes in muscle tissue by

modifying the cross-sectional area of the muscle

(muscle hypertrophy), the type of muscle fiber, and

the amount of mitochondria and muscle vasculature.

Muscle hypertrophy is accompanied by increased

capillary density. This vascular change could also

alter the temperature of the skin over the considered

muscle. Although the layer of subcutaneous fat and

muscle hypertrophy have the potential to influence

the skin temperature (Tsk) at the considered ROI,

the relationship between these factors and skin

surface temperature was unable to be identified in

the literature.

Elucidation of these relationships can contribute

to a better understanding of human thermal

physiology. This knowledge can be applied

immediately in the development of products such as

sporting clothing (Bogerd et al., 2010) and work

accessories (Psikuta et al., 2013). Thus, the present

study aimed to determine the correlations among the

arm subcutaneous fat percentage (SFP), arm muscle

cross-sectional area (MCSA), arm total cross-

sectional area (TCSA) and the difference between

core and skin temperature in the biceps and triceps

measured using thermography.

2 METHODS

This research can be characterized by a cross-

sectional study with a quantitative approach,

conducted with young and untrained volunteers from

the city of Curitiba, Brazil.

Neves E., Bandeira F., Ulbricht L., Vilaça-Alves J. and Reis V..

Inﬂuence of Muscle Cross-sectional Area in Skin Temperature.

DOI: 10.5220/0005181500640068

In Proceedings of the International Conference on Bioimaging (BIOIMAGING-2015), pages 64-68

ISBN: 978-989-758-072-7

 2015 SCITEPRESS (Science and Technology Publications, Lda.)

2.1 Volunteer

This study was approved by Human Research Ethics

Committee of Campos de Andrade University

Center under CAAE number 28901414.3.0000.5218.

This study involved 26 volunteers selected among

graduate students in physical education. Six of them

were eliminated from the sample because they had

tympanic temperature below 35.6°C (Lu et al.,

2009), which would be incompatible with a healthy

condition. This usually occurs when the volunteer

has any anatomical changes in the ear canal. The

total size of sample was 20 volunteers (13 males and

7 females).

2.2 Instrumentation and Data

Acquisition

The infrared thermograms were taken in an

acclimatized room with temperature of 24ºC. The

volunteers remained in the room for 15 minutes

reaching thermal balance before the images

acquisition.

Thermal images were acquired from both arms

(i.e. biceps brachii and triceps brachii regions)

biceps. The core temperature (Tc) was measured by

tympanic access because the eardrum shares the

same arterial blood supply as the hypothalamus.

Measurements of tympanic temperature were

performed using a Braun Thermoscan infrared ear

tympanic thermometer.

Fluke-Ti10 thermal imager; a computer with

specific software to thermograms acquisition and

processing (Fluke Smartview 3.5); and a digital

thermo-hygrometer (Minipa® model MT241) for

room temperature and humidity monitoring were

also used.

The thermal imager has 160 X 120 focal plane

array, uncooled microbolometer, which has sensors

that allow measuring the temperatures ranging from

-20ºC to +250ºC. This camera presents sensitivity to

detect differences in temperature lower than 0.13ºC

and it has accuracy of ± 2ºC of absolute temperature.

The following equipment was used for the

anthropometric assessment: 0.5cm wide flexible

measure tape, graded until millimeters; calibrated

scientific adipometer (Cescorf ); stadiometer (WCS

Woody Compact) and one digital scale (Wiso

W801), with capacity of 0-180kg and grading of

100g.

Skinfold thickness was measured using the

triceps and bicepss. A single trained professional

collected this data three times which was used for

the calculation of the arithmetic average (Neves et

al., 2013).

The values for TCSA and MCSA were

calculated from the equations proposed by Frisancho

(1981). These calculations were also used in studies

of Pompeu et al. (2004) and Ripka et al. (2012)

which are described in the Equations 1 and 2.

  



4

(1)

  







4

(2)

Where: TCSA = arm total cross-sectional area (cm

MCSA = arm muscle cross-sectional area (cm

MAC = mid-arm circumference (cm) and TT =

triceps skinfold thickness (cm)

The Equations 3 and 4 were used to calculate the

SFP.

    

(3)

 



  



 100

(4)

Where: FA = arm fat area (cm

) and SFP = arm

subcutaneous fat percentage (%).

2.3 Data Processing and Analysis

Each image was analyzed by Fluke Smartview 3.5

software. This program was set to treat each image

in the color palette red/blue, with emissivity of 0.98

and 24°C of background temperature (Neves and

Reis, 2014). The circle tool was used and the

average temperature of ROI over biceps and triceps

muscles was considered, as illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: Illustration of right biceps thermogram analysis.

The Statistical analyses were performed with

Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS,

version 21.0). Descriptive statistics (means and SD)

were used to summarize the characteristics of the

study sample, Shapiro-Wilk test was performed to

InfluenceofMuscleCross-sectionalAreainSkinTemperature

test the variable distributions, Pearson correlation

and t test for paired sample was used for the main

analysis. The statistical significance level was

defined as p < 0.05.

3 RESULTS

Core results for the study are located below in Table

1. The results of Shapiro-Wilk test showed a p value

ranging from 0.203 to 0.945 for the studies

variables.

Table 1: Average (Avg) and standard deviation (SD) of

studied variables, Curitiba-PR, Brazil, 2014.

Variables N Avg SD

Age (years) 20 26.40 9.10

tympanic temperature (°C) 20 36.14 0.35

Weight (Kg) 20 71.35 9.68

height (cm) 20 172.50 6.30

R triceps skinfold thickness (cm) 20 11.19 6.19

L triceps skinfold thickness (cm) 20 11.65 6.54

R biceps skinfold thickness (cm) 20 7.93 5.09

L biceps skinfold thickness (cm) 20 7.66 4.62

R MCSA (cm

)

20 69.14 27.93

L MCSA (cm

) 20 65.96 27.97

R triceps temperature (°C) 20 31.31 0.55

L triceps temperature (°C) 20 31.35 0.57

R biceps temperature (°C) 20 33.26 0.63

L biceps temperature (°C) 20 33.04 0.61

Δ R triceps temperature (°C) 20 4.82 0.61

Δ L triceps temperature (°C) 20 4.79 0.59

Δ R biceps temperature (°C) 20 2.88 0.70

Δ L biceps temperature (°C) 20 3.10 0.70

Legend: Avg = average, SD = standard deviation, R = right, L =

left, Δ = difference between core temperature and skin

temperature in considered area.

The t test for paired sample showed statistical

differences between biceps and triceps skinfold

thickness for both arms (p < 0.001). Figures 2 and 3

show the relationship between MCSA (cm

) and Δ

Temperature [core - skin] (°C) for the right and left

biceps, respectively.

Table 2 shows the results of Pearson correlations

among the studied variables.

Although SFP does not

correlate with MCSA in this study, it was also

carried out the calculation of the partial correlation

Figure 2: Scatter plot of relationship between right biceps

MCSA (cm

) and Δ Temperature [core - skin] (°C).

Figure 3: Scatter plot of relationship between left biceps

MCSA (cm

) and Δ Temperature [core - skin] (°C).

Table 2: Results of Pearson correlations among the

variables: arm muscle cross-sectional area, arm total cross-

sectional area, arm subcutaneous fat percentage and Δ =

difference between core temperature and skin temperature

in considered area, Curitiba-PR, Brazil, 2014.

Right side

MCSA TCSA SFP

triceps

temp

Pearson

-0.252 -0.217 0.234

p value

0.284 0.357 0.320

20 20 20

biceps

temp

Pearson

-0.487

-0.513

0.264

p value

0.030 0.021 0.261

20 20 20

Left side

MCSA TCSA SFP

triceps

temp

Pearson

-0.374 -0.371 0.317

p value

0.104 0.107 0.173

20 20 20

biceps

temp

Pearson

-0.518

-0.554

0.341

p value

0.019 0.011 0.141

20 20 20

* Correlation is significant at the 0.05 level (2 ends).

Legend: MCSA = arm muscle cross-sectional area (cm

), TCSA =

arm total cross-sectional area (cm

), SFP = arm subcutaneous fat

percentage (%), Δ = difference between core temperature and skin

temperature in considered area (°C).

BIOIMAGING2015-InternationalConferenceonBioimaging

between MSCA and ∆ temperature (core - skin),

controlled by SFP, for the right biceps r

= -0.463 (p

= 0.046) and left biceps r

= -0.452 (p = 0.050). And

also between TCSA and ∆ temperature (core - skin)

for the right biceps r

= -0.460 (p = 0.048) and left

biceps r

= -0.470 (p = 0.042).

4 DISCUSSION

Literature shows that the formation of new blood

vessels plays an important role in several

physiological processes including physical exercise

recovery (Hitoshi et al., 1994)., a process known as

angiogenesis (Schulz and Yutzey, 2004). The results

of this study suggest that individuals with greater

arm muscle cross-sectional area tend to have Tsk

closer to Tc, possibly because they have a higher

blood flow in the identified muscle. This hypothesis

is supported;, under normal circumstances (no

pathology), few physiological occasions induce

angiogenesis, one of them being physical exercise

(Prior et al., 2004). Thereby, increasing the number

of capillaries would support the need to increase

blood flow to the muscle (Fleck and Kraemer, 2006,

Prior et al., 2004).

Authors McCall et al. (1996) found an increased

number of capillaries in proportion to the increase of

the muscle fiber, thus maintaining a unchanged

capillary density per unit area of the fiber and

muscle area. However, others have found no

proportional increase in the microcirculation with

increased muscle size (Weber et al., 2010). These

differences, in the magnitude of alterations in

response to increased muscle mass, can be explained

due to different training protocols applied (Komi,

2006). The training protocol studied by McCall et al.

(1996) used isotonic contractions for 12 weeks.

Moreover, Weber et al. (2010) studied the

physiological response to isokinetic training for 8

weeks.

Although the SFP has not shown significant

correlations, some authors (Bandeira et al., 2012,

Neves and Reis, 2014) claim that the layer of

subcutaneous fat can increase the difference between

the core and skin temperatures. The results of the

partial correlations (right biceps r

= -0.463, p =

0.046, and left biceps r

= -0.452, p = 0.050),

controlled by SFP, enhance the reliability of the

correlations presented in Table 2 and the idea that

increased muscle mass leads to a temperature closer

to the center skin temperature.

The study identified significant correlations

between muscle areas and the ∆ temperature for

biceps but the same was not observed in the triceps;

this difference could be explained by the arm

vascularization and the fat layer over of each

muscle. Although the contribution of the biceps (less

than 42% of MCSA) is fewer than that of the triceps

(approximately 57% of MCSA) (Miyatani et al.,

2004), it was observed that the biceps skinfold is

also less than the triceps, allowing for thermogenic

effects within the biceps. However, for the triceps,

the heat dissipation is more limited by the presence

of a major fat layer. Another important anatomical

difference between the two muscles is the location

of the brachial artery biceps, this difference may

have influenced the results.

One possible immediate clinical implication

concerns the recovery time from a muscle damage.

Several muscle recovery strategies are based on the

increase in local blood flow to carrying of

reconstructive substances and removal of

metabolites(Kovacs and Baker, 2014). Assuming

that subjects with greater muscle area have increased

local vascularity than those with smaller muscle

area, the first may have faster muscle recovery that

the last, because the blood flow is critical factor to

the recovery muscle process(Imtiyaz et al., 2014).

5 CONCLUSIONS

It was concluded that the arm muscle cross-sectional

area influences skin temperature measured at the

biceps region. This result can be generalized to other

areas of the skin, which show similar characteristics

to the studied area, i.e., large muscle volume,

superficial vascularization and small subcutaneous

fat layer. The knowledge about the relationship

among skin temperature, core temperature and the

arm muscle cross-sectional area can be used during

all thermogram analyses and in the design of

sporting clothes and work clothes. This study

suggests that one strong person (large MCSA) can

dissipate heat more readily than those with small

muscle mass (small MCSA).

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank Brazilian Army and CNPq

for important funding and financial support.

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