Finger- and toe-temperature responses to local cooling and rewarming have limited predictive value identifying susceptibility to local cold injury-a cohort study in military cadets.

The purpose was to evaluate whether a cold-water immersion test could be used to identify individuals susceptible to local cold injuries (LCI). Sixty-five healthy non-injured (N-I) subjects, and fifteen subjects, who were tested either prior to or after a LCI, sequentially immersed one hand and one foot, in 8 °C water for 30 min (CWI phase); this was followed by 15 min of spontaneous rewarming (RW phase). The LCI group showed a lower toe temperature during the CWI phase, and a lower maximum RW temperature of the fingers than the N-I group. However, digit temperatures during the CWI and RW phases exhibited low predictive values for LCI, e.g. results implied that to identify 80% of the LCI subjects, 34-78% of the N-I subjects would also be excluded. Thus, the results suggest that, in practice, hand or foot cold-water immersion tests cannot be used to identify individuals at high risk of LCI.