Accidental fatal hypothermia in elderly people with Alzheimer's disease.
We report two forensic autopsy cases of fatal accidental hypothermia in an 89-year-old woman and a 76-year-old man who were found dead and unclothed. In both cases, Alzheimer's disease (AD) was diagnosed by neuropathological examination. Wandering due to AD was determined as the cause of these accidents. Although paradoxical undressing in hypothermic victims is known to occur as a result of cold exposure, in our patients, undressing was attributed to dementia due to AD before they became hypothermic. These cases indicate that neuropathological examination is crucial to determining the cause of such accidents and that undressing is not always the result of hypothermia in elderly victims.
Department of Forensic Medicine, Saga Medical School, 5-1-1 Nabeshima, Saga 849-8501, Japan. kibayash@post.saga-med.ac.jp
Kazuhiko
K
Kibayashi
Hideki
H
Shojo
D000059:Accidents; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000544:Alzheimer Disease / Q000473:pathology / Q000523:psychology*; D001344:Autopsy; D001921:Brain / Q000473:pathology; D003020:Clothing / Q000523:psychology; D017809:Fatal Outcome; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006801:Humans; D007035:Hypothermia / Q000209:etiology*; D008297:Male