This case highlights the characteristic electrocardiographic changes, including Osborn waves, associated with hypothermia in a patient with poikilothermia.
Hypothermia ECG changes may flag arrhythmia-related sudden death risk; hypothesis-generating for targeted prevention in poikilothermia.
A 60 year old female died suddenly, probably due to arrythmia. At autopsy, cerebral softening from the hypothalamus to the central thalamic nuclei was seen. This was thought to be secondary to a cerebrovascular accident with consequent poikilothermia. During the clinical course, ECG findings characteristic of hypothermia such as sinus bradycardia, bradic atrial fibrillation, prolongation of QT interval, T wave inversion and appearance of J wave (Osborn wave) were noted in association with cold weather. The case is discussed with a review of the literature.
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Yoshida et al. (1979) studied this question.
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