ABSTRACT

　Since patients with spinal cord injury lose their functions of the autonomic nervous system, it is difficult to regulate body temperature at perspiration and dilation/contraction of blood vessels. These problems are serious barriers for severely disabled people to participate in sports. And also, for physically disabled athletes, temperature control is an important issue from the viewpoint of maintenance of conditions towards the exercise performance and improvement of training efficiency. In order to solve these problems, we have attempted to develop a body temperature control system using core temperature. In this study, we developed the deep body thermometer which measure estimated core temperature noninvasively. Then we performed an experiment with the athlete of the wheelchair marathon to monitor the core temperature during rest and exercise, using developed deep body thermometer. As a result, it became clear that the core temperature was higher in the back than in the head and rose after exercise rather than during exercise. In addition, verification of the measurement accuracy and response time of the developed deep body thermometer showed that it had sufficient performance as a sensor used for body temperature control. Furthermore, we attempted cooling system for temperature control, ergometer load experiments were conducted for healthy subjects using the cooling system. Experimental results showed that the rise of deep body temperature on the back was able to be controlled with enough cooling capability.

DESCENTE SPORTS SCIENCE Vol.38/THE DESCENTE AND ISHIMOTO MEMORIAL FOUNDATION FOR THE PROMOTION SPORTS SCIENCE