2025 Volume 28 Issue 1 Pages 17-29
Many patients with cervical spinal cord injuries, who have suffered spinal cord damage in the neck due to traffic accidents or other causes, have serious problems with their body temperature regulation, such as sweating disorders that affect almost the whole body. For this reason, the deep body temperature is easily affected by changes in the ambient temperature. In the past, the author estimated the optimal temperature range for patients with cervical spinal cord injuries in spring and fall at a relative humidity of 50%, to be 24±1°C, based on physiological response data from an artificial climate chamber experiment conducted on 23 patients with cervical spinal cord injuries. However, this estimation process did not take into account the fact that the basal metabolic rate of patients with cervical spinal cord injuries is lower than that of healthy people. The purpose of this study is to re-examine the optimal temperature range for patients with cervical spinal cord injuries in spring and fall at a relative humidity of 50%, by adding new experimental data to the artificial climate chamber experiment data that has been accumulated to date, and taking into account the characteristics of the basal metabolism of patients with cervical spinal cord injuries.
I describe the process by which I estimated the optimal temperature range to be 24±1°C based on the experimental data of 23 patients with cervical spinal cord injuries in the past. I investigated the room temperatures at which the average oral temperature of patients with cervical spinal cord injuries at the end of the experiment (after 90 minutes of exposure) was within the range of 36.0 to 36.9°C, which is considered to be normal body temperature. This is because the room temperature was 23, 25°C. However, as mentioned above, this estimation method does not take into account the fact that the basal metabolic rate of patients with cervical spinal cord injuries is lower. Therefore, in the re-examination, I focused on the temperature difference between the oral temperature at the start and end of the experiment at each room temperature. It shows the magnitude of the thermal load on the human body. By comparing this temperature difference between 54 students 32 patients with cervical spinal cord injuries, I decided to estimate the optimal temperature range.
The average change in oral temperature of the students tended to be within ±0.2°C at any room temperature (19-31°C). This is thought to be due to the thermoregulatory function being activated appropriately according to the room temperature. The average change in oral temperature for patients with cervical spinal cord injuries with thermoregulatory disorder was within ±0.2°C at room temperatures of 24, 25, 26°C. As a result, the optimal temperature range for patients with cervical spinal cord injuries in spring and fall at a relative humidity of 50%, has been revised from the previously mentioned 24±1°C to 25±1°C.
