HYPOTHERMIA IN MULTIPLE-SCLEROSIS

Five patients with clinically definite multiple sclerosis are reported who presented with acute relapses associated with hypothermia. Repeat ed of hypothermia were seen four. Thrombocytopenia was associated with the hypothermia in four patients. Further investigation disclosed a t endency to chronic hypothermia and suggested an altered thermoregulato ry set point in one patient, when MRI, endocrine, and autonomic studie s failed to localise a lesion in the hypothalamus, but subsequent necr opsy showed hypothalamic lesions. In such patients a predisposition to altered thermoregulation may occur due to direct involvement of the h ypothalamus or from combined lesions affecting hypothalamic outflow to the brainstem and spinal cord.