Physiologic and functional responses of MS patients to body cooling

The objective of this study was to compare the responses of multiple sclerosis (MS) patients to short-term cooling therapy using three different vest configurations. 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 every 5 min. Arm, leg, chest, and rectal temperatures, heart rate, and respiration were recorded continuously on a Biolog ambulatory monitor. Each subject was given a series of subjective and objective evaluation tests before and after cooling. The Life Enhancement Technologies and Steele vests test groups had similar, significant (P < 0.01) cooling effects on oral and ear canal temperatures, which decreased approximately 0.4 degrees C and 0.3 degrees C, respectively. The Life Enhancement Technologies active liquid cooling vest produced the coldest (P < 0.01) skin temperature and provided the most improvement on subjective and objective performance measures. These results show that the various garment configurations tested do not produce similar thermal responses in all MS patients. The circulating liquid cooling vest was found to be more effective than either of the two passive cooling garments tested.