[The effect of a water-cooled vest on heat intolerance in a patient with anhidrosis due to familial amyloidosis of Finnish type].

The patient was a 70-year-old male with familial amyloidosis of Finnish type who complained of heat intolerance due to anhidrosis during outdoor activities in summer. A water-cooled TM-2 vest was tried for this patient to reduce his body heat during exercises. Following the morning activities including jogging in August his body temperature rose up to 38.0 degrees C without wearing the partly frozen vest. However, when he wore it, his temperature rose up to only 37.2 degrees C after the exercises, which was 0.8 degree C lower than when he did not wear the vest. Headache and tachycardia during and following the morning activities did not appear by wearing the vest. In the heat loading test, in which the room temperature was raised from 28.0 degrees C to 38.0 degrees C for 15 minutes and kept at 38.0 degrees C for 60 minutes with 60% humidity, the rises of his skin and esophageal temperatures with wearing the partly frozen vest for the last 60 minutes were 1.2 degrees C and 0.4 degree C lower, respectively, than his skin and esophageal temperatures without wearing it. Concomitantly, the increase of heart rate was suppressed in the same test condition. Wet vest in running water showed the similar effects. Therefore, we concluded that the use of water-cooled TM-2 vest was effective in alleviating the symptoms and signs of his heat intolerance.