Women's Shortness of Breath and Men's Chest Pain: Signals Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Conducted by the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles and spearheaded by Sumeet Chugh, an authority on sudden cardiac arrest, the research discovered that half of the participants encountered early indications before their cardiac arrest event. The investigation, published in the peer-reviewed journal Lancet Digital Health, unveiled distinct differences in the pre-arrest symptoms experienced by women compared to men. Among smaller subsets of both genders, symptoms such as palpitations, seizure-like activity, and flu-like manifestations were observed (1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Sudden cardiac arrest

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“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,” said Chugh.“Our findings could lead to a new paradigm for prevention of sudden cardiac death,” he added.

Early Intervention Paving the Way for Prevention

For this study, investigators used two established and ongoing community-based studies in the US, each developed by Chugh. Both studies provide Cedars-Sinai investigators with unique, community-based data to establish how to best predict sudden cardiac arrest.

“It takes a village to do this work. We initiated the SUDS(Sudden Unexpected Death Study) study 22 years ago and the PRESTO study eight years ago. These cohorts have provided invaluable lessons along the way,” said Chugh. In both the studies, Smidt Heart Institute investigators evaluated the prevalence of individual symptoms and sets of symptoms prior to sudden cardiac arrest, then compared these findings to control groups that also sought emergency medical care.

“Next we will supplement these key sex-specific warning symptoms with additional features -- such as clinical profiles and biometric measures -- for improved prediction of sudden cardiac arrest,” Chugh added.

Reference:

1. Sudden cardiac arrest - (https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sudden-cardiac-arrest/symptoms-causes/syc-20350634)

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