THE REGULATION OF BODY TEMPERATURE DURING FEVER,
Abstract
Fever in man was studied calorimetrically to determine, first, the heat flows which cause changes in body temperature and, second, the physiological regulations which directly control these flows. Seventeen reactions induced by typhoid vaccine were observed in environments ranging in ambient temperature from 27 to 43 C. Changes in body temperature are due almost entirely to autonomic regulation of peripheral blood flow, sweat secretion, and muscular activity. Peripheral blood flow, by altering the skin temperature, is a control of heat exchange by convection and radiation; sweating is a control of evaporative cooling; and muscular activity, in the form of shaking chills, controls metabolic heat production. Sweating and muscular activity secondarily cause changes in convection and radiation. These changes are opposed to the primary thermal effects of sweat secretion and chills but are smaller in magnitude. The pattern of temperature regulation in fever is governed by the thermal nature of the environment and the strength of the pyrogenic stimulus. Whenever possible, temperature changes are brought about by altering the rate of heat loss from the body rather than by changing the rate of heat production. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Oct 01, 1948
- Accession Number
- AD0806403
Entities
People
- C. R. Park
- E. D. Palmes
Organizations
- United States Army Medical Research Laboratory