PURPOSE: To assess the discriminatory performance of the platelet-to-thrombin-antithrombin complex ratio (PLT/TAT) for differentiating heatstroke from heat exhaustion and to explore its association with 28-day prognosis and disease severity. METHODS: This retrospective study analyzed 100 heat illness patients from 2018 to 2025, including 45 with heat exhaustion and 55 with heatstroke. Baseline and admission laboratory data were analyzed using RF, LASSO and SVM-RFE to discern heatstroke risk factors. Diagnostic accuracy of PLT/TAT was evaluated via ROC curve analysis, complemented by Kaplan-Meier and Spearman analyses. RESULTS: < 0.001). CONCLUSION: The PLT/TAT ratio was associated with heatstroke severity and 28-day survival, making it a promising adjunctive biomarker for diagnosis and risk stratification.
He et al. (2026) studied this question.