Hypothermia in malnourished Jamaican children

ABSTRACT

An analysis was made of the 4-hourly temperature records of 137 malnourished Jamaican children, the consecutive admissions to a metabolic ward during a 3-year period. Mean rectal temperature of afebrile children during the first week in hospital was 0.52§C lower than it was in 19.7 percent of the children. It was related to low weight losses and height but not to serum or whole body potassium, serum sodium, or seasonal variation in ambient temperature. The incidence of of hypothermia in the survivors of this group of children was the same as it was in 42 children who died from severe malnutrition in the ward during the period 1960-1970. It is concluded that hypothermia is not an unfavourable prognostic sign in malnutritoned Jamaican children. Hypothermia was commoner in marasums than it was in kwashiorkor. In 11 afebrile chidren with kwashioker, rapid loss of oedema was associated with a fall in mean rectal temperature, suggesting that the insulating properties of oedema fluid may protect against hypothermia in kwashiorkor (AU)