Physiologic and functional responses of MS patients to body cooling

Objective: The objective of this study was to compare the responses of mult iple sclerosis (MS) patients to short-term cooling therapy using three diff erent vest configurations. Design: Each garment was used to cool 13 male and 13 female MS subjects (31 -67 yr). Oral and right and left ear temperatures were logged manually ever y 5 min. Arm, leg, chest, and rectal temperatures, heart rate, and respirat ion were recorded continuously on a Biolog ambulatory monitor. Each subject was given a series of subjective and objective evaluation tests before and after cooling. Results: The Life Enhancement Technologies and Steele vests test groups had similar, significant (P < 0.01) cooling effects on oral and ear canal temp eratures, which decreased approximately 0.4 degrees C and 0.3 degrees C, re spectively. The Life Enhancement Technologies active liquid cooling vest pr oduced the coldest (P < 0.01) skin temperature and provided the most improv ement on subjective and objective performance measures. Conclusions: These results show that the various garment configurations tes ted do not produce similar thermal responses in all MS patients. The circul ating liquid cooling vest was found to be more effective than either of the two passive cooling garments tested.