# 5714
According to The American Heart Association (data for 2009) every year an estimated 785,000 Americans experience their first heart attack, and another 470,000 suffer a recurrent heart attack. They also estimate another 195,000 `silent’ myocardial infarctions occur each year.
Making for just under 1.5 million coronary attacks a year (cite Lloyd-Jones D, Adams RJ, Brown TM, et al. Heart Disease and Stroke Statistics—2010 Update. Circulation. 2010;121:e1-e170).
While many people survive their first heart attack, for far too many Americans, their first heart attack is also their last.
Every year American EMS units respond to roughly 300,000 cardiac arrests, and the vast majority of those prove fatal (cite AHA CPR Stats). Why some people survive their first heart attack, and others do not, has been a subject of considerable interest for many years.
The BMJ journal HEART recently published an article that looks at ECG and clinical predictors of sudden cardiac death.
Electrocardiographic and clinical predictors separating atherosclerotic sudden cardiac death from incident coronary heart disease
Elsayed Z Soliman, Ronald J Prineas, L Douglas Case, Gregory Russell, Wayne Rosamond, Thomas Rea, Nona Sotoodehnia, Wendy S Post, David Siscovick, Bruce M Psaty, Gregory L Burke
While this study found many commonalities between those who suffer sudden cardiac death and those who survive their heart attacks, researchers found several risk factors that appear to suggest a higher risk of sudden death.
- Black race/ethnicity (compared to non-black)
- Hypertension and increased heart rates
- Extreme high or low body mass index
Additionally, ECG readings showing a prolongation of QT interval (QTc) and abnormally inverted T waves were seen as possibly being predictors of a higher risk of sudden cardiac death.
This research was conducted at the Epidemiological Cardiology Research Center (EPICARE) at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
The authors conclude by stating that these results need to be validated in another cohort.
A press release, with more details, is available on the Wake Forest Medical Center Website.
Predictors of Dying Suddenly Versus Surviving Heart Attack Identified
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – July 25, 2011 – Is it possible to predict whether someone is likely to survive or die suddenly from a heart attack?
A new study by researchers at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center has answered just that.
“For some people, the first heart attack is more likely to be their last,” said Elsayed Z. Soliman, M.D., M.Sc., M.S., director of the Epidemiological Cardiology Research Center (EPICARE) at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the study. “For these people especially, it is important that we find ways to prevent that first heart attack from ever happening because their chances of living through it are not as good.”
While preventing that first heart attack is a laudable goal, this is an excellent time to remind my readers of the importance of learning CPR.
This from the American Heart Association.
- Sudden cardiac arrest is a leading cause of death in the U.S.
- Everyone should know how to perform CPR in an emergency.
- Immediate, effective CPR could more than double a victim's chance of survival.
- Push on the chest at a rate of at least 100 beats per minute.
- Push to the beat of "Stayin' Alive" and you could save a life.
- Click here for more information on Hands-Only CPR.
Today, CPR is easier to do than ever.
Compression-only CPR is now the standard for laypeople, and so you don’t have to worry about doing mouth-to-mouth.
While it won’t take the place of an actual class, you can watch how it is done on in this brief instructional video from the American Heart Association.
A class only takes a few hours, and it could end up helping you save the life of someone you love.
To find a local CPR course contact your local chapter of the American Red Cross, the American Heart Association, or (usually) your local fire department or EMS can steer you to a class.
For more on the recent changes to bystander CPR, you may wish to visit these recent blogs.
CPR As A Requirement For High School Graduation
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