Prevention of hyperthermia by a body heat removal system with peltier devices on a wheelchair

In order to prevent persons with thermoregulatory disorders from getting hyperthermia, we developed a body heat removal system (BHRS) with Peltier devices, or thermoelectric devices. The Peltier devices were mounted on a wheelchair backrest and continuously transfer body heat through the contacting interface into the outer environment. The cooling experiment in a hot environment with able-bodied subjects demonstrated the feasibility of body temperature control with BHRS and revealed thermophysiological responses induced by the contact-type cooling. The comparison of skin temperatures and skin sweating rate in the trials with back cooling (BC) and no cooling (NC) showed that BHRS suppressed skin sweating. In the BC trials, the core body temperature did not increase without skin sweating. These results clearly indicate that BHRS was able to replace a part of the thermoregulatory responses.