Thanatobiochemistry: its contribution to the diagnosis of hypothermia fatalities.

Hypothermia is a potentially lethal pathology whose in vivo diagnosis is relatively easy, based on the observation of a body temperature below 35C. However, its post mortem diagnosis is much more complex because of a thermal decrease occurring systematically after the death, which renders most often uninterpretable the body temperature as a diagnostic argument for hypothermia. Moreover, none of the macroscopic or microscopic autopsy elements described as suspicious of hypothermia are pathognomonic of a hypothermic death. Currently, this diagnosis arises in the light of an association of concordant arguments including these autopsic and histological elements but also some biomarkers. The aim of this article is to illustrate by a practical case the diagnostic complexity of a death by hypothermia through the evocative elements currently described, by emphasizing the reflection on some biomarkers confirmed or under study.