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Concept of Selective Brain Cooling and Its Implication

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Thermotherapy for Neoplasia, Inflammation, and Pain

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Summary

Selective brain cooling (SBC) can occur in hyperthermic humans despite the fact that humans have no carotid rete, a vascular structure that is located at the base of the skull and which facilitates countercurrent heat exchange between carotid arteries and jugular veins in some mammals. In humans, an increase in flow of the emissary and angular-ocular veins contributes to SBC. The efficiency of SBC is increased by evaporation of sweat on the head, particularly by means of forced fanning, and of water from the nasal mucosa by means of hyperventilation. The efficiency of the SBC is also increased by changing the body posture from supine to upright position, which increases emissary and angular-ocular venous flows by means of an increase in the gradient of intravenous pressure between the vasodilated head skin and the intracranial space. A forced increase in respiratory evaporative heat loss from the upper respiratory tract facilitates SBC, as observed in horses, which have also no carotid rete. Knowledge of human SBC, facilitating heat loss from the head, avoiding headgear, increasing ventilation by dilating the athlete’s nostrils, etc., is likely to improve the health and comfort of subjects exposed to extreme hot environments for their work, during sport events, or for therapeutic reasons. The validity of using tympanic temperature as an index of brain temperature is also postulated.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Kanazawa University, Kanazawa, 920-1192, Japan

    Tetsuo Nagasaka

  2. Faculty of Medicine, Laval University, Québec, Canada

    Michel Cabanac

  3. Department of Pathophysiology and Medicine, Hôpital-Maternité, l’Arbresle, France

    Heiner Brinnel

  4. University of Sydney, Camden, New South Wales, Australia

    J. R. S. Hales

  5. Aichi Medical School, Nagakute, Aichi, 480-1195, Japan

    Tokuo Ogawa

Authors
  1. Tetsuo Nagasaka
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  2. Michel Cabanac
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  3. Heiner Brinnel
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  4. J. R. S. Hales
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  5. Tokuo Ogawa
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Environmental Physiology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Nagasaki University, 852-8523, Nagasaki, Japan

    Mitsuo Kosaka

  2. Health Research Foundation, 606-8225, Kyoto, Japan

    Tsutomu Sugahara

  3. Clinic of Rheumatology, Physical Medicine, and Balneology, University of Giessen, Bad Nauheim, Germany

    Klaus L. Schmidt

  4. Max Planck Institute for Physiological and Clinical Research, W.G. Kerckhoff Institute, Bad Nauheim, Germany

    Eckhart Simon

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© 2001 Springer Japan

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Nagasaka, T., Cabanac, M., Brinnel, H., Hales, J.R.S., Ogawa, T. (2001). Concept of Selective Brain Cooling and Its Implication. In: Kosaka, M., Sugahara, T., Schmidt, K.L., Simon, E. (eds) Thermotherapy for Neoplasia, Inflammation, and Pain. Springer, Tokyo. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-67035-3_23

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-4-431-67035-3_23

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Tokyo

  • Print ISBN: 978-4-431-67037-7

  • Online ISBN: 978-4-431-67035-3

  • eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive

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