Studies on the Raynaud's Phenomenon of Occupational Origin. : III. An Attempt of Spotting the Patient by Inducing Iontophoresis

The present study was performed in order to spot the patient having the Raynaud's phenomenon by inducing iontophoresis while the Raynaud's phenomenon is latent. Ten subjects were divided into two groups each of which was composed of five, one group of patients having the Raynaud's phenomenon and the other serving as the control. As the pain was felt when a current 2 mA or more was introduced and when the current was rapidly increased, a current of 0.5 mA at the beginning and 1.9 mA at the end, increasing by 0.1 mA in every two minutes, was applied. The method of iontophoresis was as follows. At first, a solution of 0.1% noradrenalin was introduced by the above procedure, and next, a solution of 0.5% histamin was perfused by the same procedure. Plethysmogram after noradrenalin iontophoresis was round-shaped and its amplitude (mean) corresponded to 4.3 μl in the patient group. On the contrary, plethysmogram of the control group was sharp and its amplitude (mean) corresponded to 7.4 μl. Namely, a reduction of pulse wave amplitude had occured after the noradrenalin iontophoresis in the patient group. When histamin iontophoresis was operated subsequently, pulse wave amplitude of the control group increased above the amplitude of the patient group. The pulse wave amplitude at the time of histamin iontophoresis was compared with that before histamin iontophoresis, and it was observed that the increment of the pulse wave amplitude of the patient group was larger than that of the control group. However, this tendency was not found in a few persons among the patient group. This might be related with the functional abnormality in individuals among the patient group.