Serial venous blood samples taken from a vein
draining a forearm sprayed with Deep-Heat became visibly bright red over the following 30 minutes.
When the oxygen concentration in this blood was
measured, an increase in venous blood oxygen was
found which showed a profile similar to the thermographic
index curve measuring erythema. No significant
increase in oxygen concentration took place in
blood from the opposite arm (Fig. 3).
Deep-Heat was tested for its capacity to alter the
clumping of platelets. The right forearm of volunteers
was sprayed with Deep-Heat and the anterior
surface completely wetted. Venous blood samples
were then withdrawn from the right antecubital fossa
and the harvested platelets tested for their capacity to
clump in the presence of arachidonic acid (AA) in an
in-vitro test. The results obtained (Fig. 4) suggest that
the platelets collected from such blood were made
more resistant to AA induced clumping, but only for
a short time, the maximum effect being reached at 15
minutes after application of the spray. The effect was
not seen in platelets from venous blood from the
opposite, untreated arm.