Subjective perceptions of 8, 11 and 14°C chemotherapy liquid cooled gloves and socks

We investigated the effects of peripheral cooling using chemotherapy gloves and socks at three cooling temperatures on subjective perceptions. The hands and feet were cooled with 8, 11, and 14°C by water-perfused gloves or socks. Nine females participated in six experimental conditions: hands or feet cooling at 8, 11, and 14°C. The heat was extracted at 3.8, 5.4, and 7.7 kJ·min¹ via the gloves and at 4.1, 6.0, and 9.0 kJ·min^-1 via the socks. While the results showed that overall subjective perceptions did not differ among the three temperatures (~ 9.0 kJ·min^-1), there were significant differences in local thermal comfort, pain sensation, and pain discomfort among the three cooling temperatures (P < 0.05). When cooling the hands or feet at 8, 11 or 14°C, subjects felt ‘cold’ or ‘cool’, on average, at the end of 60-min cooling with no significant differences among the three temperatures, whereas subjects felt more uncomfortable at 8°C than 14°C for cooling either the hands or feet (P < 0.05). Subjects felt more pain at 8°C than 14°C cooling for both hands and feet. These results indicate that the 8°C cooling for 60 min might cause uncomfortable pain sensation, especially for cold-vulnerable individuals. We recommend 1) a cooling bout of less than 60 min, 2) a cooling temperature higher than 8oC when cooling the hands or feet, and 3) a higher temperature for the feet when the hands are simultaneously cooled. However, the present results on subjective perceptions should be interpreted with peripheral vasoconstriction of fingers and toes while cooling.