2007, Piran, Slovenia

Acute and chronic heat exposure
RESULTS
Heat stroke developed in the 2 subgroups under similar circumstances. This is summarized in
Table 2. EHS occurred mainly because of unaccustomed work intensity and less because of
exposure to heavy environmental heat. In most of the cases, organizational misconduct was
the main reason for heat stroke.
Although 10% of the soldiers exhibited a state of HI in a follow-up test, most of them were
found to be HT in subsequent testing conducted a few weeks after the first test. An example
for such a situation is depicted in Figure 2 (only rectal temperature shown).
Rectal Temperature ( o C)
39.0
38.5
38.0
37.5
37.0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time (min)
Normal response
Heat Intolerant
Figure 1: Dynamics of rectal temperature response during 120 min exposure to exercise-heat
stress. The comparison between a normal (expected) response and the response of intolerance
to heat are shown. (In any event the test is discontinued when the safety limit of 39 o C is
reached).
Table 1: General characteristic of the heat tolerant
(HT) and heat intolerant (HI) subgroups.
HT HI
Age (yrs) 19.5±2.0 20.0±3.0
Weight (kg) 72.6±9.2 77.9±10.3
Height (cm) 177±6 177±9
BMI (kg/m2) 23.1±2.7 24.6±2.5
Duration in service (weeks) 32±30 16±11
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