The research performed in the domain of human body vibrations revealed their important influence on human health, being the origin of several professional diseases. Consequently, the vibrations influence can be clearly systematized in two distinct categories: whole body vibrations – with significant effects in the entire human body; vibrations on different sections of the body – that transmit s...

We have investigated the autonomic nervous function of hand-arm vibration syndrome patients using blood chemical analyses and electrophysiological methods. When exposed to whole body cooling, hand-arm vibration syndrome patients showed a significantly greater increase of plasma norepinephrine than the age-matched healthy controls. The patients also exhibited reduced variation of R-R intervals i...

Nacrtak Despite technological advancements in machinery for timber harvesting, chainsaws are fre­ quently used in forest operations. In Austria 85% of the wood volume harvested (15 million m3) are cut by chainsaws. The two most frequently documented ergonomic threats during motor manual felling include exposure to noise and vibration. This paper presents the results of exposure to hand-arm vibr...

Sensory stimulation of wrist musculature can enhance stability in the proximal arm and may be a useful therapy aimed at improving arm control post-stroke. Specifically, our prior research indicates tendon vibration can enhance stability during point-to-point arm movements and in tracking tasks. The goal of the present study was to investigate the influence of forearm tendon vibration on endpoin...

A new frequency weighting method to assess hand-arm vibration exposure is proposed in this paper. The influence of frequency components was first estimated using the method of multivariate analysis, then a simple form of the weighting curve was introduced. Compared with the frequency weighting in the current ISO 5349-1 (2001), the proposed weighting can better explain the relationship between r...

The clinical assessment of patients thought to be suffering from hand-arm vibration syndrome (HAVS) requires the use of multiple vascular and sensory tests. In a family physician's office, Adson's, Allen's and cold water immersion of the hands are the only feasible vascular tests, while the sensory tests have to be limited to assessing impairment of skin sensitivity and manipulative dexterity. ...

The purpose of this research was to establish a scale for comfort with regard to hand-arm vibration using the category judgment method and to validate the frequency-weighting method of the ISO 5349-1 standard. Experiments were conducted using random signals as stimuli. These stimuli consisted of three types of signal, namely designated stimulus F, with flat power spectrum density (PSD) ranging ...

BACKGROUND We systematically reviewed etiological factors of Kienböck's disease (osteonecrosis of the lunate) discussed in the literature in order to examine the justification for including Kienböck's disease (KD) in the European Listing of Occupational Diseases. METHODS We searched the Ovid/Medline and the Cochrane Library for articles discussing the etiology of osteonecrosis of the lunate p...