title: The forensic relevance of hypothermia in living persons--literature and retrospective study.
abstract: In practical case work, forensic experts can be confronted with the problem of estimating cold exposure times in the living given the core body temperature after exposure. However, the current literature lacks systematic studies of body cooling in the living and cooling rates under different circumstances. The objective of our study is to provide working forensic specialists with a collection of cases to use for comparison in order to estimate the accident time or assault time using the cooling rates from similar cases. Excessive data mining led to 18 cases from the literature, 16 cases from Jena's patient files and 9 cases from the database of the Institute for Legal Medicine in Jena. Cooling rates between 0.15 °C/h and 4.1 °C/h were found in adults. Newborns showed rates between 1.2 °C/h and 28.5 °C/h. Potential factors that influence the cooling process in the living are discussed and the possibilities and limitations of the data acquisition and -evaluation are considered.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Legal Medicine, Jena University Hospital - Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany.
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lange
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Muggenthaler
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hubig
authors.forename: G
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Mall
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000435:Alcoholic Intoxication / Q000150:complications; D001831:Body Temperature; D002493:Central Nervous System Diseases / Q000150:complications; D003080:Cold Temperature; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D005260:Female; D005554:Forensic Medicine; D006700:Home Childbirth; D006801:Humans; D007035:Hypothermia / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D016014:Linear Models; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D019966:Substance-Related Disorders / Q000150:complications; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000150:complications; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Cooling data; Hypothermia; Influence factors; Time of accident