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This project aimed to quantify the regional distribution of sweat composition over the skin surface and to determine whether sweat constituent concentrations collected from regional sites can estimate whole-body concentrations. Ten males cycled for 90 min in a 20 degrees C (50% relative humidity) environment at 45% peak aerobic power. Sweat was collected from eleven skin regions and the whole body, using a wash-down technique. Strong relationships were evident between the regional and whole-body sweat Na+ and Cl-, such that the thigh and calf exhibited greater correlation coefficients than area-weighted means derived from four and eight skin regions. Therefore, in this particular protocol the whole-body sweat Na+ and Cl- could be predicted from regional sweat collections. Relationships between sweat constituents were evident for sweat Na+ and pH, and sweat K+ and lactate when data were pooled between skin regions and subjects. To our knowledge this is the first investigation to report a positive relationship between sweat K+ and lactate. The exact mechanism responsible for the positive relationship between sweat K+ and lactate is uncertain although it is speculated to occur at the secretory coil.
Patterson et al. (2000) studied this question.