Paroxysmal hypertension and spontaneous periodic hypothermia

We report the case of a 42-year-old Zairian male who presented with paroxysmal attacks of hypertension accompanied by spontaneous recurrent hypothermia and profuse sweating of unknown origin. Routine and extensive examination failed to indicate a usual cause of arterial hypertension or for periodic hypothermia. Based on the hypothesis of an epileptic center influencing both the thermoregulatory and the vasomotor mechanisms, an anticonvulsant treatment was successfully installed. The present study makes a correlation between the present condition and certain neurologic abnormalities described in the literature.