A Study on Vascular Regulators as Early Biomarkers of Hand Arm Vibration Syndrome

Abstract

Objectives Purposes of this study are to study the changes in expression of vascular regulators after vibration exposure and during the onset of vibration-induced white finger (VWF) and to screen for vascular regulatory factors that could be used as early biomarkers of HAVS. Methods Using judgmental sampling from a Chinese factory, workers with VWF and hand-transmitted vibration exposure but without VWF were selected for research. Blood samples were taken from all subjects, and the levels of nine of the vascular regulators were measured using ELISA. Results Receiver operating characteristic curve analysis was performed on nine vascular regulators to assess their diagnostic sensitivity for VWF with the following area under the curve results: PGI2 = 0.861, ANP = 0.840. Conclusions Collectively, PGI2 and ANP exhibited the most potential for the early diagnosis of HAVS.