Heat stroke: report on 18 cases.
Eighteen hyperpyrexial patients with a mean rectal temperature of 42.3 degrees (range 41.2-43.1 degrees C) were rapidly cooled in a unit producing evaporative cooling from a warm skin. Sixteen patients recovered, and two, who were diabetic, died. The time taken for the core temperature to drop to 38 degrees C varied from 26 min to 5 h. The success of a treatment which maintained vasodilatation by warming the skin accords with the hypothesis that peripheral vasoconstriction combined with a high metabolic heat output is a major factor in the pathogenesis of heat stroke.
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001831:Body Temperature; D005260:Female; D006359:Heat Exhaustion / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D011188:Potassium / Q000097:blood; D012867:Skin / Q000098:blood supply; D012881:Skin Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014664:Vasodilation
D011188:Potassium