Circaseptan axillary temperature rhythm development in a chronomic and familial context

The time structure (chronome) of temperature is examined herein in the case of two Japanese sisters (ErK and EuK) who manually measured daily axillary temperature in the mornings and evenings for 18 or 24 months, respectively. Measurements were characterized by a circaseptan variation, notably those taken in the morning. The tasks remaining are outlined in the light of automatic measurements from a then-apparently clinically healthy 58-61-year-old woman (EH, after whom one of the Japanese girls was named). Between November 1978 and May 1981, EH provided rectal temperature data at 12-min intervals on 158 separate 24-hour spans. In addition to a prominent circadian rhythm, infradians and ultradians (with frequencies lower and higher than circadian, respectively) are found, notably about-yearly and half-yearly and about-weekly changes, and components with periods of 2.18 and 1.14 hours. EH and her two North American daughters also provided several manual measurements on most days for 5 consecutive years. In the light of these various data, the multifrequency component of variation in the human temperature chronome is introduced.