During the Cold weather mainly in the Northern parts of the country, cold hands are a problem and that makes getting a stable finger plethysmograph tracing a challenge. Here are some things to try: Encourage your patients to put their gloves on in the house before going outside. Actually, mittens are even better preservers of warmth than gloves.
Warm a 250 cc bag of saline in the microwave and have the patient hold it before treatment starts. For really frosty digits, keep the warmed saline in the patient’s hand, position the plethysmograph and wrap a towel around everything to keep those fingers warm and plethysmograph friendly. Heating pads also work very well and can be applied before or throughout ECP treatment.