Comparative study on the protection performance and joint motion range between capstan and bladder compensatory suits

Objective To study the differences of compensatory performance and the influences to joint motion between DC 4 capstan compensatory suit and DC-7 bladder compensatory suit.Methods Ten healthy males wore the suits,helmet and mask for the test.The suits were inflated with the pressures corresponding to mask pressure maintaining 0,200,400,600,800,1070 mm H2O sequence.Positive pressure breathing was simultaneously applied.Their heart rate (HR),mean arterial pressure (MAP),total peripheral vascular resistance (TPR) and cardiac output (CO),as well as the compensatory pressure on breast,abdomen thigh and shank were obtained for analysis.Vicon 460 captured subjects' motion on neck,shoulder,elbow,hip and knee in 3-dimension for the motion range evaluation.Results DC-4 suit enabled subjects with higher MAP and TPR than DC 7 suit as 800 and 1070 mm H2O mask pressure maintained (F=1.392,1.787,P＜0.01).There was no significant difference on CO as subjects were in two suits (P＞0.05).With the increase of breathing pressure,the abdomen compensatory pressures of DC-4 and DC-7 were significantly raised (F=2.846,3.218,P＜0.01).So did the chest and thigh compensatory pressure of DC-7 but the compensatory pressures applied by two suits on the other body parts (P＞ 0.05).DC-4 provided significant higher compensatory pressures on body parts than DC-7 (F=3.587-5.212,P＜0.01).Motion range analysis indicated that DC-4 restricted more on the motions of neck,shoulder,elbow,hip and knee (F=10.864,P＜001),and DC 7 only showed the motion limitation on shoulder and hip (F=5.310,4.231,P＜0.01).Conclusions There is no significant protection performance distinction between DC-4 and DC-7,but DC-7 enables subject with better motion range.DC-7 that configured as matched helmet without neck bladder and sleeveless design brings such advantages as flexible shoulder and elbow motion,and these would be referred by DC-4 in case of the suit's protection performance ensured. Key words: Protective clothing;  Acceleration;  Environmental exposure;  Motion range, joint