Heat strain
HEAT stress detection from personally STandARdized heat strain measurements – The HEATSTAR pilot trial
Summary
Increased environmental heat (environmental temperature and relative humidity), exertional heat, and heat from wearing heavy protective clothing are the three main pillars of heat stress in occupational health. Heat stress leads to a variety of physiological body reactions, the heat strain, with the aim to maintain a body’s thermoregulatory homeostasis. The heat strain remains not well understood. While different vital parameters derived from circulation, sweating and core body temperature play a certain role in the heat strain reaction, their respective dependencies in context to the three different main pillars of heat stress remain unclear. The wet-bulb globe temperature (WBGT) measure is the gold standard to estimate a person’s heat stress by monitoring the overall environmental heat load. A reliable monitoring device to personally measure the individual heat strain remains sorely lacking. Intense heat stress can lead to serious health issues such as heat stroke, death, a decline in work performance as well as a decline in concentration with a subsequent higher risk for injuries.
In this interdisciplinary, explorative pilot study, we will investigate the basics of the individual heat strain response derived from a combination of personalized health assessments in relation to the three main pillars of occupational heat stress. Further, novel non-invasive sweat biomarkers for heat strain as well as an all-in-one wearable solution will be explored and physiologically validate.
Clinical Project Team
Prof. Dr. med. Jörg Goldhahn, MAS – Head of Project
Dr. med. Noé Brasier – Clinical Project Lead
Carmela Niederberger – Translational Research Internship
Study Location
Heat and Humidity Lab, BASPO, Grenchen, Switzerland
Timeline
Start October 2021 – End May 2023
Funding
- external pageInnosuisse – Swiss Innovation Agency
- MedLab Fellowship ETH Zurich
- external pageSwiss National Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA), Switzerland
Project Partners
- external pageepyMetrics®, Switzerland
- external pageUniversity of Applied Science of Eastern Switzerland, Switzerland
- external pageSwiss Federal Office of Sport (BASPO), Switzerland
- external pageSwiss National Accident Insurance Fund (SUVA), Switzerland
- Digital Trial Intervention Platform (dTIP), Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Switzerland
- external pageJoint Metabolome Facility, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria
- external pageCentre for Chronobiology, Psychiatric University Clinics (UPK), Basel, Switzerland