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Lowering
body temperature may improve one's chances for long-term survival
after a stroke, according to their study reported in the July
issue of Stroke.
After
studying 390 patients who were admitted within six hours of
suffering a stroke, researchers found that patients with a
body temperature of more than 37 degrees Celsius had more
severe strokes and more frequent diabetes.
This same
high-temperature group, they observed, also had a higher mortality
rate five years after their strokes occurred.
"Hypothermic
therapy in the early stage in which body temperature is kept
low for a longer period after ictus could be a long-lasting
neuroprotective measure," said the researchers.
The findings
add to the body of evidence regarding the benefits of low-body
temperature in stroke survival. Previous studies had found
that stroke victims who arrived at hospital with lower body
temperatures had a good chance of near-term survival.
Previous
studies of body temperature in acute human stroke has suggested
that if a stroke patient has a low body temperature at onset
the resulting deficits are milder, risk of death during hospital
stay is lower, and size of brain lesion is smaller. On the
other hand, if patients have high body temperatures on admission
(ie fever), a worse outcome seems to result.
"The
most important news from the present study is that admission
body temperature even predicts long-term mortality,"
study author Dr.Lars Peter Kammersgaard told Medical Week.
"A low temperature predicts a lower risk of dying years
after stroke and a high temperature predicts an increased
risk of dying."
Kammersgaard,
a stroke neurologist at Copenhagen University Hosptial in
Denmark, the study underlines the need to monitor temperature
in acute stroke patients and to vigorously fight infections
and other conditions that cause fever early after onset.
Should
future clinical trials regarding acute stroke treatment prove
that keeping body temperature low for some hours after stroke
is beneficial, Kammersgaard said this would suggest that hypothermia
is more likely to provide long-term improvements rather than
just short-term effects.
Source:
Hypertension
Week of July 28, 2002
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