Alteration of biorhythm in acute severe cerebral infarction

Abstract

There have been only a few reports concerning disturbances of the biological rhythms in the acute stage of severe cerebral infarction. We investigated the relationship between the core body temperature rhythm in the acute stage of the injury and the prognosis at three months, in 24 patients with severe supratentorial cerebral infarction who developed gait disturbance at onset due to hemiparesis. The rectal temperature in the acute stage was measured continuously every 1 min for 48 h. The subjects were divided into two groups: the CR group, in which the patients showed a strong circadian rhythm (CR), as measured by the maximum entropy method, and the NCR group, in which the patients showed unclear CR.