Abstract
About 4500 persons suffered from heat stroke, under the surprise by a heat wave, during the summer of 1988 in Nanjing, China. A clinical and epidemiological analysis of 271 cases of severe heat stroke in the elderly (60-93 year-old) are presented in this report. Before their attack of heat stroke, 187 patients (69%) had underlying chronic disease. There were precipitous onset in most patients in the days which had a high environmental temperature. Among them, 149 (55.0%) had ≥40°C of body temperature; 127 (46.9%) presented hot and dry skin; 251 (92.6%) showed central nervous system abnormalities such as coma, convulsion or delirium. Leucocytosis was seen in approximately half the number of these patients. The values of serum, K, Na Ca and Cl tended to be lower, but two cases had hyperkalemia. Although these patients received vigorous cooling therapy and so on, the mortality was still as high as 35.4% in this series.
