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SERIAL HYPERTHERMIA TESTING IN MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS: A METHOD FOR MONITORING SUBCLINICAL FLUCTUATIONS
Author(s) -
Davis Floyd A.,
Michael Joel A.,
Neer David
Publication year - 1973
Publication title -
acta neurologica scandinavica
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.967
H-Index - 95
eISSN - 1600-0404
pISSN - 0001-6314
DOI - 10.1111/j.1600-0404.1973.tb01279.x
Subject(s) - subclinical infection , hyperthermia , medicine , multiple sclerosis , psychiatry
Small elevations of body temperature in multiple sclerosis (MS) patients are known to reversibly worsen existing signs and symptoms as well as provoke the appearance of new findings. In this study serial hyperthermia testing was performed in three MS patients for periods up to seven months in order to detect any significant fluctuations in temperature sensitivity of visual and oculomotor signs. Serial hyperthermia testing revealed marked fluctuations in thermal sensitivity during periods when the patient's overt clinical status was essentially stable. In two patients (one with visual, the other with oculomotor signs) recently recovered from clinical exacerbations there was a heightened response to hyperthermia that gradually reversed over days‐weeks. In another patient with bilateral optic nerve involvement in longterm remission and clinically stable, an abrupt, marked, unilateral fluctuation in the thermal sensitivity of vision was observed. These findings suggest that the manifest signs and symptoms in MS as well as characteristic exacerbations‐remissions may, like the peak of an iceberg, reflect only a portion of the extent and activity of the underlying pathology. Serial hyperthermia testing appears to offer a means of uncovering and monitoring these subclinical changes.