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Cerebral fever is a rather rare term and is also used to denote an extremely serious, life-threatening condition. It can be caused by various diseases that result in damage to the nerve tissue, such as, for example, a stroke or subarachnoid bleeding. How is cerebral fever diagnosed, what can its consequences be and how to treat it?

Cerebral fever(also known asfever of central origin ) arises as a result of damage to the thermoregulation center in the brain, which acts as a kind of thermostat in our organism and appropriately "sets" the temperature depending on the circumstances in which the organism is located. Cerebral fever usually occurs in the course of serious neurological conditions - such as Alzheimer's or Parkinson's disease, atherosclerosis and others.

The structures of the thermoregulation system are responsible for maintaining a constant temperature of the human body. These include thermodetectors (which perceive temperature changes in the environment), thermoreceptors (scattered inside the body, responsible for analyzing the temperature inside the body) and a thermoregulation center located in the hypothalamus.

There are two parts to the thermoregulation center. The front part of the hypothalamus is associated with the processes of heat loss from the body, while the back part of the hypothalamus is the center of keeping the body warm. Signals from peripheral receptors reach the thermoregulation center and, if necessary, this structure stimulates appropriate effectors - for example, when it is necessary to increase body temperature, sweat glands may be stimulated (sweat secretion may be inhibited) or blood vessel muscle cells (their contraction leads to constricting blood vessels and reducing heat loss).

Under proper conditions, the thermoregulation center is able to maintain a constant body temperature as much as possible. The situation is different, however, when this structure is damaged - this is when cerebral fever may appear.

Cerebral fever: causes

In principle, the root cause of cerebral fever has already been mentioned above - it occurs when the center located in the central nervous system is damagedthermoregulation. The problems that are most often responsible for the occurrence of cerebral fever include:

  • stroke
  • subarachnoid hemorrhage
  • head injuries
  • tumors of the central nervous system

Cerebral fever: symptoms

It is not difficult to guess that the main symptom of cerebral fever is elevated body temperature. In this case, however, the fever is much higher than that of severe infections (such as pneumonia).

Characteristic of the problem is that symptoms of cerebral fever appear within 3 days from the onset of damage to the central nervous system, in addition, the increased body temperature persists for several to several dozen days.

Another characteristic of fever of central origin is that despite administering antipyretic drugs, the patient's body temperature does not drop.

Brain fever: effects

Cerebral fever has an extremely negative impact on the prognosis of patients - it results in a number of processes that are unfavorable to the functioning of the central nervous system. Increased temperature affects the course of energy transformations - there is an increased amount of carbon dioxide in the brain, there is also an increase in oxygen consumption by nerve cells.

Acidosis, which is unfavorable for neurons, may develop, the release and action of neurotransmitters also change - in the course of cerebral fever an increase in the toxicity of glutamic acid is noticeable.

In patients with cerebral fever, damage to endothelial cells may occur - this phenomenon is unfavorable because it leads to an increase in the permeability of the blood-brain barrier, which in a short time may result in brain swelling.

In the course of cerebral fever, the blood flow in the central nervous system may increase - the problem is very serious, e.g. in the course of subarachnoid hemorrhage, because increased blood flow in the central nervous system may lead to the accumulation of larger amounts of blood in the space subarachnoid.

The most serious effect of cerebral fever is the deterioration of prognosis in patients who have suffered a stroke, subarachnoid hemorrhage or any other condition that has preceded the occurrence of central fever.

Cerebral fever: diagnosis

In principle, the diagnosis of cerebral fever is made after all other possible causes of a significant increase in temperature have been ruled outsick body. For this purpose, it is sometimes necessary to carry out many different tests - it is necessary, for example, to exclude drug fever or fever which is a symptom of a serious infection (such as, for example, meningitis or pneumonia).

Cerebral fever: treatment

There are several different methods of treating cerebral fever - both conservative and invasive. The first of these include pharmacological treatment - typically administered drugs include ibuprofen, paracetamol and metamizol.

There may also be attempts to lower the patient's body temperature by physical means, e.g. by cooling the body with ice or air, and special cooling blocks or blankets are also used.

If the above-mentioned methods are ineffective, attempts may be made to use other, more invasive techniques, such as e.g. flushing of body cavities or endovascular cooling, and cold fluids are also used, which are administered intravenously to patients.

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Category:

Neurology