Criteria for the Diagnosis of Heat-Related Deaths: National Association of Medical Examiners

Abstract

The National Association of Medical Examiners Ad Hoc Committee on the Definition of Heat-Related Fatalities recommends the following definition of "heat-related death": a death in which exposure to high ambient temperature either caused the death or significantly contributed to it. The committee also recommends that the diagnosis of heat-related death be based on a history of exposure to high ambient temperature and the reasonable exclusion of other causes of hyperthermia. The diagnosis may be established from the circumstances surrounding the death, investigative reports concerning environmental temperature, and/or measured antemortem body temperature at the time of collapse. In cases where the measured antemortem body temperature at the time of collapse was > or = 105 degrees F (> or = 40.6 degrees C), the cause of death should be certified as heat stroke or hyperthermia. Deaths may also be certified as heat stroke or hyperthermia with lower body temperatures when cooling has been attempted prior to arrival at the hospital and/or when there is a clinical history of mental status changes and elevated liver and muscle enzymes. In cases where the antemortem body temperature cannot be established but the environmental temperature at the time of collapse was high, an appropriate heat-related diagnosis should be listed as the cause of death or as a significant contributing condition.