Accidental Hypothermia Associated with Intracardiac Thrombi

Accidental hypothermia and thrombosis are rarely associated and encountered. A 66-year-old male and 62-year-old male were both admitted with accidental hypothermia. Patient 1 had a rectal temperature of 28.5 °Celcius (C). After 1 day of hospitalization, he developed worsening shortness of breath due...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Curēus (Palo Alto, CA) CA), 2019-04, Vol.11 (4), p.e4512
Main Authors: Torres Acosta, Noel D, Noman, Anas, Gohar, Ashraf, Balakrishnan, Gautam
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Alcohol
Anticoagulants
Blood clots
Blood platelets
Blood pressure
Cardiology
Cardiomyopathy
Case reports
Coma
Edema
Electrocardiography
Emergency Medicine
Heart failure
Heart rate
Hospitalization
Internal Medicine
Laboratories
Lungs
Metabolism
Patients
Thrombosis
Ultrasonic imaging
Urine
Vital signs
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Accidental hypothermia and thrombosis are rarely associated and encountered. A 66-year-old male and 62-year-old male were both admitted with accidental hypothermia. Patient 1 had a rectal temperature of 28.5 °Celcius (C). After 1 day of hospitalization, he developed worsening shortness of breath due to worsening pulmonary edema. Further investigation with echocardiogram showed large left ventricular thrombi as well and global hypokinesis and apical akinesis. Patient 2 had a rectal temperature of 28.5 °C, he was also discovered to have a multifactorial shock. Echocardiogram for shock evaluation showed small apical thrombus as well as global hypokinesis. Hypothermia has been associated with hypocoagulability rather than hypercoagulability secondary to platelet dysfunction and clotting factor enzyme derangements. Moreover, hypothermia has also been associated with myocardial dysfunction that could have predisposed the development of intracardiac thrombi. Further research needs to be done to help better understand these possible association.
ISSN:2168-8184
2168-8184
DOI:10.7759/cureus.4512