Importance

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Abstract

A heat exchanger changes the temperature of a predetermined area of the skin at a programmed rate preferably by cooling. The rate at which the area of skin changes in response to temperature change of the heat exchanger and the rate the skin temperature returns to normal are then measured and compared to standard rates over a number of cycles. Impaired peripheral blood flow is evident especially on subsequent cycles as vascular disease slows the rate of return to normal temperature of the skin. The heat exchanger has a cooling chamber with one side of the chamber being a cooling surface adjacent to the skin. An injector is connected to a source of fluid having a boiling point at ambient pressure less than the temperature to which the skin is to be cooled and greater than ambient temperature of the apparatus. The injector injects fluid into the chamber and onto the side of the cooling surface opposite the skin to boil the fluid on the surface to cool the surface and the skin.

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First Claim