Urinary catecholamines as markers of hypothermia

✍ Scribed by David W. Sadler; Derrick J. Pounder

• Book ID: 103902656
• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 1995
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 147 KB
• Volume: 76
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0379-0738
• DOI: 10.1016/0379-0738(95)01814-x

✦ Synopsis

Although raised urinary CA levels provide good supportive evidence of prolonged agonal stress in hypothermic deaths, the CA index is not, in our experience, of particular diagnostic significance.

Key~nvds: Catecholamines; Hypothermia; Adrenaline/noradrenaline ratio; Urinary excretion Hirvonen and Huttunen describe an interesting approach to assessing urinary and serum CA levels in rats subjected to experimental hyopthermia [l]. They suggest that due to preferential secretion of adrenaline during cold stress, the CA index (adrenaline to noradrenaline ratio) is greater than one and that this represents an additional marker of hypothermia. Routine clinical assessment of urinary catecholamine (CA) levels is normally based on biochemical analysis of acidified urine collected over a 24-h period. Interpretation of CA levels in a post mortem 'spot' urine specimen is complicated by several unpredictable variables. Firstly, there is considerable natural fluctuation in CA secretion related to diurnal rhythmn and periods of stress. Secondly, the period of urinary secretion into the bladder before death is unknown. Finally, urinary dilution varies considerably in response