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Query: UMLS:C0020672 (hypothermia)
 17,327 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Canoeing and kayaking are upper-body sports that make varying demands on the body, depending on the type of contest and the distance covered. The shorter events (500 m) are primarily anaerobic (2 minutes of exercise), calling for powerful shoulder muscles with a high proportion of fast-twitch fibres. In contrast, 10,000 m events call for aerobic work to be performed by the arms. Such contestants need a high proportion of slow-twitch fibres, and an ability to develop close to 100% of their leg maximum oxygen intake when paddling. In slalom and whitewater contests, the value of physiological testing is somewhat limited, since performance is strongly influenced by experience and the ability to make precisely judged rapid paddling efforts under considerable emotional stress. Paddlers face dangers from their hostile cold water environment; causes of fatalities (drowning, cardiac arrest, ventricular fibrillation and hypothermia) are briefly reviewed. Medical problems include provision of adequate nutrition and a clean water supply, effects of repeated immersion (softening of the skin, blistering, paronychial infections, sinusitis, otitis), varicose veins (secondary to thoracic fixation) and hazards of exposure to fibreglass and polystyrene in the home workshop. Surgical problems include muscle sprains and mechanical injuries (haemotomas, lacerations, contusions, concussion, and fractures).
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PMID:Science and medicine of canoeing and kayaking. 354 36

The treatment of massive upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage by gastric hypothermia was studied clinically in 23 patients: five with peptic ulcer, six with multiple gastric erosions, nine with portal hypertension and varices, and three with coagulation defects. Hemorrhage was controlled in 13 of the patients. The high mortality (14 out of 23 patients) was attributed to the severity of the bleeding and to the underlying disease, particularly in patients with liver failure. This form of treatment is a useful method of treating selected patients with upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage.
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PMID:Gastric cooling for massive upper gastrointestinal bleeding. 529 19

While exposure of cultured spinal neurons to mild hypothermia provides some protection from physical trauma (dendrotomy), profound cooling (< 17 degrees C) causes unrelated neuronal injury and death, which can be prevented by treatment with NMDA receptor antagonists. To investigate the mechanism of hypothermic neuronal injury we examined the ultrastructure of cultured spinal neurons after 2 h of cooling to 17 degrees C or 10 degrees C, with or without the presence of the NMDA receptor antagonist D-2-amino-5-phosphonovalerate, and with or without rewarming to 37 degrees C. These groups were compared to cultures exposed to NMDA or to the calcium ionophore A23187. Patterns of ultrastructural change, involving cytoskeletal disruption, mitochondrial abnormalities and vacuolization of the cytoplasm, suggest a common mechanism of injury in all treatment groups, involving an elevation of intracellular calcium. Some neurons exposed to hypothermia, NMDA or ionophore developed beaded dendrites. Microtubules were fragmented in varicosities but not in the intervening constrictions; other organelles were largely excluded from the constrictions. Varicosities may form when organelles and cytoplasm accumulate as the result of disruption of transport and membrane stabilizing proteins by proteases activated by calcium influx via NMDA mediated channels. The periodic nature of the swellings may reflect inherently discontinuous distribution of molecular subunits of the cytoskeleton.
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PMID:Ultrastructural damage and neuritic beading in cold-stressed spinal neurons with comparisons to NMDA and A23187 toxicity. 854

Death due to hemorrhage from ruptured peripheral varicose veins is an uncommon event. A review of the files of Forensic Science SA (FSSA) in Adelaide, South Australia, was undertaken over a 10-year period from January 1996 to December 2005 for such cases. A total of 8 cases were found out of a total of 10,686, representing <0.01% of autopsy cases. The male to female ratio was 1:3, with an age range of 58-84 years (mean = 78 years). The victims were all located at their home addresses, where they had been alone at the time of their deaths. Scene investigations revealed considerable blood loss, with pooling around the victims' bodies, and also in other parts of the house, particularly the bathroom/toilet areas. Four ulcers were of an acute perforative type and 2 were of a chronic ulcerative type. In 2 cases, bleeding followed trauma. Toxicologic evaluation was performed in only 3 of the cases, revealing blood alcohol levels of 0.06% and 0.14% in 2 cases, respectively. A further victim had been prescribed anticoagulant drugs for an unrelated condition. Additional findings of significance were ischemic heart disease in 3 cases and deep venous thrombosis of the calf veins on the side of the fatal hemorrhage in another case (with no evidence of pulmonary thromboembolism). One victim had acute gastric erosions, suggesting that hypothermia following collapse played a role in the terminal event. Autopsy evaluation of such cases should include careful layer dissection of the area of hemorrhage to confirm the presence of the ruptured varix and to enable directed histologic sampling.
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PMID:The incidence and characteristic features of fatal hemorrhage due to ruptured varicose veins: a 10-year autopsy study. 1804 15