A comparison of brain, core and skin temperature in children with complicated and uncomplicated malaria

A prospective study was carried out in which brain, core and skin temperatu res were studied in children with cerebral malaria (n = 23), uncomplicated malaria (n = 12) and normal children (n = 9) using the zero heat Bow method . Patients with cerebral or uncomplicated malaria were admitted to the paed iatric wards (mean age, 6 years 8 months +/- 2 years 8 months). Normal chil dren, children of the investigators, of the same age group, served as contr ols. Parasitaemia levels were similar in the cerebral and uncomplicated mal aria cases. Higher brain than core temperatures would have been expected in cerebral malaria but not in uncomplicated malaria but this was not the cas e in this study. There was no statistical difference in brain, core and ski n temperature between cerebral and uncomplicated malaria patients. However, there was a highly significant difference between normal children and cere bral and uncomplicated malaria patients. Brain temperature was 0.02-0.2 deg reesC below core temperature in all the groups with larger differences duri ng the febrile period. Mean differences of brain minus core, brain minus sk in and core minus skin between the two groups of patients were not statisti cally significant. There was no correlation between temperature and the lev el of coma or parasitaemia for cerebral and uncomplicated malaria patients. There was a positive correlation between brain and core temperature in bot h groups of patients during the febrile phase. Brain temperature remained l ower than core temperature in cerebral and uncomplicated malaria as in norm al children. Normal thermoregulation appears to be maintained in cerebral m alaria.