Hemodynamic Characteristics of Patients with Hypothermia Due to Occult Infection and Other Causes

Abstract

Eighty-five consecutive patients with hypothermia were prospectively evaluated to assess clinical and laboratory data that would differentiate those patients with hypothermia caused by severe infection and bacteremia and those with hypothermia of other causes. Thirty-two patients had hemodynamic monitoring, allowing us to assess hemodynamic differences between the two groups. Clinical characteristics, including admission temperature, leukocyte count, mean arterial pressure, pulse rate, respiratory rate, arterial pH, and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure, did not distinguish between the two groups. However, patients with infection with bacteremia had lower calculated systemic vascular resistances (486.0 ±125.0 compared with 1759.9 ±331.0 dynes s cm^-5;p = 0.001) and higher cardiac indices (7.1 ±1.9 compared with 2.8 ±0.7 L/min m²; ñ = 0.006) than patients without severe infections. Thus, our data suggest that hemodynamic characteristics are different in patients with infection-related hypothermia and patients with hypothermia associated with other causes, and appear to depend on the underlying disease.