Acute effects of force and vibration on finger blood flow

Hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) are prone to occur in people engaging in occupations that require prolonged exposure to hand-held vibrating workpieces[1, 2]. Considering holding a power hand tool, the amount of force exertion should be large enough in order to avoid sliding[3]. Also, how hard a subject grasps the tool affects the amount of vibration energy entering the hands; therefore, the applied force is an important factor in the exposure assessment, in addition to the vibration itself. However, little research has been done on the relationship between acute vascular response and active forces applied. This study is aimed to investigate the acute effect of two active forces (grip and push exertions) on finger blood flow (FBF) during exposure to a 125 Hz hand-arm vibration (HAV). It was hypothesized force would play a more important role in vascular effects than vibration, and grip force rather than feed force would have more effect on the vascular system