Warning Symptoms May Predict Sudden Cardiac Arrest

FRIDAY, Sept. 1, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Warning symptoms may be able to predict imminent sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and differ among men and women, according to a study published online Aug. 26 in The Lancet Digital Health.

Kyndaron Reinier, Ph.D., from Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles, and colleagues estimated the strength of the association between symptoms and imminent SCA in a case-control study. The analysis included a discovery cohort of participant data from emergency medical services reports for adults (aged 18 to 85 years) with witnessed SCA between Feb. 1, 2015, and Jan. 31, 2021, and an inclusion symptom (411 participants) and control participants with similar symptoms but without SCA (1,185 participants), as well as a separate replication cohort (427 participants), all identified from two U.S. community-based studies of patients.

The researchers found that in the discovery cohort, patients with SCA were more likely to have dyspnea (41 versus 22 percent; P < 0.0001), chest pain (33 versus 25 percent; P = 0.0022), diaphoresis (12 versus 8 percent; P = 0.0059), and seizure-like activity (11 versus 7 percent; P = 0.011) compared with controls. Men with SCA were more likely to have chest pain (odds ratio [OR], 2.2), dyspnea (OR, 2.2), and diaphoresis (OR, 1.7), while in women, only dyspnea was significantly associated with SCA (OR, 2.9). In a separate replication population, findings were mostly consistent, although among men, diaphoresis was not associated with SCA.

“Harnessing warning symptoms to perform effective triage for those who need to make a 911 call could lead to early intervention and prevention of imminent death,” coauthor Sumeet Chugh, M.D., also from Cedars-Sinai Health System in Los Angeles, said in a statement.

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