Mayo Clinic Health Manager
Get free personalized health guidance for you and your family.
Get Started
About our e-newsletters
- Free e-newsletters
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- We do not share your e-mail address
Housecall, our weekly general-interest e-newsletter, keeps you up to date on a wide variety of health topics with timely, reliable, practical information, recipes, blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts and more. Our biweekly topic-specific e-newsletters also include blogs, questions and answers with Mayo Clinic experts, and other useful information that will help you manage your health.
Housecall Archives
Mayo Clinic Housecall
Stay up to date on the latest health information.
What you get
- Free weekly e-newsletter
- Mayo Clinic expertise
- Recipes, tools and other helpful information
- We do not share your e-mail address
Tests and diagnosis
By Mayo Clinic staffThe diagnosis of hypothermia is usually apparent based on a person's physical signs and the conditions in which the person with hypothermia became ill or was found.
A diagnosis may not be readily apparent, however, if the symptoms are mild, as when an older person who is indoors has symptoms such as confusion, lack of coordination and impaired speech. In such cases, a part of the diagnostic workup will include a temperature reading with a rectal thermometer that reads low temperatures.
- Hypothermia. The Merck Manuals: The Merck Manual for Healthcare Professionals. http://www.merck.com/mmpe/print/sec21/ch319/ch319d.html. Accessed May 6, 2009.
- Ulrich AS, et al. Hypothermia and localized cold injuries. Emergency Medical Clinics of North America. 2004;22:281.
- McCullough L, et al. Diagnosis and treatment of hypothermia. American Family Physician. 2004;70:2325.
- Jurkovich GJ. Environmental cold-induced injury. Surgical Clinics of North America. 2007;87:247.
- Hypothermia: A cold weather hazard. National Institute on Aging. http://www.nia.nih.gov. Accessed May 4, 2009.
- Extreme cold: A prevention guide to promote your personal health and safety. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. http://emergency.cdc.gov/disasters/winter/guide.asp. Accessed May 4, 2009.
- Winter safety tips. American Academy of Pediatrics. http://www.aap.org/advocacy/releases/decwintertips.cfm. Accessed May 4, 2009.
- Federal requirements and safety tips for recreational boats: Cold water survival. United States Coast Guard. http://www.uscgboating.org/safety/fedreqs/saf_cold.htm. Accessed May 8, 2009.
- Hypothermia and cold water. Canadian Red Cross. http://www.redcross.ca/article.asp?id=15204&tid=024. Accessed May 8, 2009.
