Author(s)

Qiaoying Wu, Xiaoyu Han

Corresponding Author

Xiaoyu Han

Abstract

In this paper, influencing factors of pressure comfort of the medical compression hosiery for varices is studied using EEG evaluation method in the aspects of human body and garment and it is concluded that garment pressure comfort is correlated to the length of garment and body movement: medical compression socks apply greater pressure on the legs of the subjects than medical compression stockings, providing more comfort; the constriction of medical compression hosieries is greater when the subject is sitting than that when the subject is standing, along with greater comfort. However, movements with greater curvature will result in excessive garment pressure on local parts of the legs and decreased comfort. Medical compression hosiery for varices is the most effective and convenient cure to the varicose vein of lower limbs, a common vascular disease. This hosiery can help the venous blood flow back to the heart, altering the traditional treatments of stripping the varicose superficial veins and high ligation or compression bandaging with elastic bandage. With a special process, the medical compression hosiery for varices can produce certain gradient pressure from bottom to top on lower limbs. Varied pressure differences transmit the pressure through muscle tissues to veins to resist high pressure of veins, help venous blood flow back and improve the venous congestion so as to treat varicose veins. Essentially, the medical compression hosiery for varices applies different pressures on the legs, so constriction and comfort are produced concurrently. Researches on pressure comfort of the medical compression hosiery for varices and development of compression hosieries with treatment effect and comfort have drawn the attention of many scholars. EEG-based garment pressure comfort evaluation as an objective method to evaluate the comfort is widely accepted in the academia. The garment pressure comfort is mainly transmitted to the higher nervous center of the human brain through the human body's visual and tactile organs. This information can be expressed as the electrical activity of brain cells. With potential of this electrical activity as the vertical axis and the time characteristic as the horizontal axis, the graph of correlation between the potentials and times recorded is the EEG signal[ ]. The α wave is the activity in the EEG that has the same pattern, the same cycle and recurs, that is, the EEG rhythm, which is one of characteristic indexes to measure EEG activity and whose strength is correlated to garment pressure[ ]. The spectrum energy change of the α wave in the EEG signal can reflect the pressure comfort. When the α wave is suppressed by the pressure of the garment, it will cause discomfort. Liu Yunjuan[ ] combined EEG and ERP and discovered pressure of garment can suppress α wave and cause discomfort for body. Different movements can also affect the spectrum energy change of α wave, demonstrating α wave strength of EEG is correlated to subjective mental reaction, constriction and comfort under a certain garment pressure. In this task, α wave under different garment pressures are studied based on EEG technology to further explore the main factors that affect the comfort of the medical compression hosiery for varices.

Keywords

Medical Compression Hosiery for Varices; Pressure Comfort; Eeg Technology