SWEAT PATTERNS AND SKIN TEMPERATURES IN PATIENTS WITH BRAIN AND SPINAL CORD LESIONS

The status of the sympathetic nervous system, as manifested in sweat production and skin temperature, was studied in 30 patients with various lesions of the brain and spinal cord. In group 1, consisting of six poliomyelitis patients, the ability to sweat and to make vasomotor adjustments was found normal with few exceptions. In group 2, consisting of six patients with brain disease, two showed abnormal patterns of skin temperature and/or sweating. In group 3, consisting of ten patients with spinal cord compression below the level of the eighth cervical segment (C-8), both skin temperature and sweating showed numerous abnormal patterns. In group 4, consisting of eight males with spinal cord compression at or above C-8, anhidrosis was extensive in one and complete in all the others; only two had normal patterns of skin temperature. The distribution of the autonomic fibers that control sweating does not coincide with that of the fibers that control vasomotor activity.