Neurology
HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
QUICK SEARCH:   [advanced]


     

This Article
Right arrow Figures Only
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Correspondence:
Submit a response
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me when Correspondence are posted
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow reprints & permissions
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by MacKenzie, M.A.
Right arrow Articles by Kloppenborg, P.W.C.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by MacKenzie, M.A.
Right arrow Articles by Kloppenborg, P.W.C.
NEUROLOGY 1995;45:1602-1607
© 1995 American Academy of Neurology

Sudomotor function in human poikilothermia

M.A. MacKenzie, MD, E. Schonbaum, PhD, A.R.M.M. Hermus, MD, H.C.H. Wollersheim, MD, Th. Thien, MD, A.G.H. Smals, MD and P.W.C. Kloppenborg, MD

From the Department of Medicine, Divisions of Endocrinology (Drs. MacKenzie, Hermus, Smals, and Kloppenborg) and General Internal Medicine (Drs. Wollersheim and Thien), University Hospital Nijmegen, The Netherlands; the Department of Pharmacology (Dr. Schonbaum), University of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Received August 1, 1994. Accepted in final form January 19, 1995.
Address correspondence and reprint requests to Dr. Marius A. MacKenzie, Department of Medicine, Division of Endocrinology, University Hospital Nijmegen, P.O. Box 9101, 6500 HB Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

Hypohidrosis predisposes to hyperthermia and may indicate generalized thermoregulatory failure.To assess the sweating capacity in human poikilothermia, we performed a quantitative analysis of the central and peripheral sudomotor pathways in four women with acquired poikilothermia (aged 29 to 38 years) and nine controls. Heat challenge in a climatic chamber (ambient temperature 40 degrees C, 50% relative humidity) for 180 minutes revealed that both sweat secretion and evaporative weight loss were significantly lower in the patients than in the controls (p less than 0.01). Temperature thresholds for thermal sweating were markedly elevated in at least two patients, whereas a third patient showed no sweating response. Stimulation of the eccrine sweat glands by intradermally injected acetylcholine during reduced core temperature (34.9 plus minus 0.7 degrees C) revealed a significantly reduced sweating response in all patients (p less than 0.01); the sudomotor response to pilocarpine iontophoresis was reduced or absent in three patients. We conclude that the generalized thermoregulatory sudomotor failure in these patients was attributable primarily to disorders of the central sudomotor drive; the impaired postganglionic sudomotor response is temperature related and possibly secondary to (long-standing) poikilothermia. Quantification of heat-dissipating capacity is pivotal for diagnosing severe thermolability and may help to prevent serious heat illness.

NEUROLOGY 1995;45: 1602-1607






HOME HELP FEEDBACK SUBSCRIPTIONS ARCHIVE SEARCH TABLE OF CONTENTS
Copyright © 1995 by AAN Enterprises, Inc.