Skip Navigation

This Article
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowRequest Permissions
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by MALCHAIRE, J.
Right arrow Articles by DIAZ, L. S. R.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by MALCHAIRE, J.
Right arrow Articles by DIAZ, L. S. R.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Ann. occup. Hyg., Vol. 42, No. 2, pp. 121-127, 1998
© 1998 British Occupational Hygiene Society
Published by Oxford University Press

research-article

Temporary Threshould Shift of the Vibration Perception Threshold following a Short Duration Exposure to Vibration

J. MALCHAIRE*, A. PIETTE and L. S. RODRIGUEZ DIAZ

Unité Hygiène et Physiologie du Travail, Université Catholique de Louvain Clos Chapelle-aux-Champs, 3038, B-1200 Bruxelles, Belgium

*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed. Tel: 32 2 764 32 29. Fax: 32 2 764 39 54. e-mail: malchaire{at}hytr.ucl.ac.be

The objective of this study is to analyze the evolution of the vibration perception threshold (VPT) following a short duration exposure to vibration. The literature reports experiments with 3 to lOtnin exposure to vibration after which a steady state is not necessarily reached. The temporary threshold shift (TTS) of the VPT is extrapolated from data recorded during the recovery period. The assumption of a linear decrease with the logarithm of time gives erroneous results for the TTS extrapolated at the end of the exposure.

81 experiments were conducted on 9 young subjects without any neurological problem, exposed to acceleration amplitudes of 5, 20 and 80ms–2 at frequencies of 31.5 (conditions I to 3), 125 (conditions 4 to 6) and 500 Hz (conditions 7 to 9). The exposure to vibration lasted 32 min and was interrupted shortly at time 2, 4, 8, 16 to record the VPT at 31.5 and 125 Hz. The VPT was also recorded before the exposure and several times during the recovery.

The evolution of the VPT appears to follow a first order model characterized by a maximum amplitude TTS, a time constant ({tau}) and a residual value (r, as a fraction of the TTS). The correlation coefficients between observed and predicted values in the 81 experiments are 0.881 at 31.5 Hz and 0.885 at 125 Hz. The TTS is influenced by the exposure amplitude and frequency and is different at the two test frequencies. It varies also significantly between the subjects and with their initial VPT value. The time constant is about 3 minutes at both test frequencies, while the residual fraction is of the order of 0.14 at 31.5 Hz and 0.07 at 125 Hz. Both parameters appear to be independent of the exposure parameters. © 1998 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd on behalf of BOHS.


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.