Aetiology and outcome in hospitalized cardiac arrest patients

Abstract

Abstract Aims To study aetiologies of in-hospital cardiac arrests (IHCAs) and their association with 30-day survival. Methods and results Observational study with data from national registries. Specific aetiologies (n = 22) of IHCA patients between April 2018 and December 2020 were categorized into cardiac vs. non-cardiac and six main aetiology categories: myocardial ischemia, other cardiac causes, pulmonary causes, infection, haemorrhage, and other non-cardiac causes. Main endpoints were proportions in each aetiology, 30-day survival, and favourable neurological outcome (Cerebral Performance Category scale 1–2) at discharge. Among, 4320 included IHCA patients (median age 74 years, 63.1% were men), approximate 50% had cardiac causes with a 30-day survival of 48.4% compared to 18.7% among non-cardiac causes (P < 0.001). The proportion in each category were: myocardial ischemia 29.9%, pulmonary 21.4%, other cardiac causes 19.6%, other non-cardiac causes 11.6%, infection 9%, and haemorrhage 8.5%. The odds ratio (OR) for 30-day survival compared to myocardial ischemia for each category were: other cardiac causes OR 1.48 (CI 1.24–1.76); pulmonary causes OR 0.36 (CI 0.3–0.44); infection OR 0.25 (CI 0.18–0.33); haemorrhage OR 0.22 (CI 0.16–0.3); and other non-cardiac causes OR 0.56 (CI 0.45–0.69). IHCA caused by myocardial ischemia had the best favourable neurological outcome while those caused by infection had the lowest OR 0.06 (CI 0.03–0.13). Conclusion In this nationwide observational study, aetiologies with cardiac and non-cardiac causes of IHCA were evenly distributed. IHCA caused by myocardial ischemia and other cardiac causes had the strongest associations with 30-day survival and neurological outcome.