# Can heatstroke cause an arterial aneurysm?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-heatstroke-cause-an-arterial-aneurysm/556407>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [October 7, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-heatstroke-cause-an-arterial-aneurysm/556407 "2010-10-07T20:29:18Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-heatstroke-cause-an-arterial-aneurysm/556407/1 "2010-10-07T20:29:18Z")

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Simple question.

I’m aware that arterial wall weakening factors have to occur first, but assuming one or more of those factors is in place, can heat or heatstroke cause one? Medical literature suggests no (because it doesn’t even mention it as a possibility).

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**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\
**Post date:** [October 7, 2010, 9:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-heatstroke-cause-an-arterial-aneurysm/556407/2 "2010-10-07T21:49:36Z")

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Well, heat stroke is unlikely to _help_ a pre-existing aneurysm or arterial vessel wall defect, but the medical community at large doesn’t consider aneurysm to be a significant enough of a sequella of heat stroke to even worry about. Possibly because heat stroke is prone to cause a lot of debility and even death by many other mechanisms.

My med literature review doesn’t show association between the two entities.

So **if** there’s an association, I don’t think anyone has picked up on it.

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**Author:** ![KarlGauss](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/karlgauss/32/3713_2.png) [@KarlGauss](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/KarlGauss)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 1:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-heatstroke-cause-an-arterial-aneurysm/556407/3 "2010-10-08T01:35:26Z")

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Why do you ask? Do you have a hypothesis regarding a possible link or mechanism to relate the two?

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**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-heatstroke-cause-an-arterial-aneurysm/556407/4 "2010-10-08T04:34:11Z")

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I work in the workers’ compensation field, and we are dealing with an injured worker who claims to have suffered a ruptured aneurysm due to heatstroke. Everyone is like, “um… what?” but I thought I’d check here just to make sure I wasn’t missing something.

Thanks, **Qadgop**.

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**Author:** ![dzero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/5f9b8f/32.png) [@dzero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dzero)\
**Post date:** [October 8, 2010, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/can-heatstroke-cause-an-arterial-aneurysm/556407/5 "2010-10-08T13:12:44Z")

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can a symptom/side effect of heat stroke be an increase in blood pressure? If so, couldn’t that be a link between the 2? Just curious.