Research Article
No access
Published Online: 7 July 2004

Prehospital Cardiac Arrest and the Adverse Effect of Male Gender, but Not Age, on Outcome

Publication: Journal of Women's Health
Volume 12, Issue Number 7

Abstract

Objective: To analyze the incidence and outcome of prehospital cardiac arrest as it correlated to gender and age as a secondary end point in an interventional clinical trial.
Methods: This prospective, randomized, double-blinded clinical intervention trial enrolled 874 prehospital cardiopulmonary arrest patients encountered by prehospital urban, suburban, and rural regional emergency medical service (EMS) areas. This trial evaluated outcome and profiled demographic predictors of cardiac arrest patients refractory to defibrillation with intravenous access who underwent standard advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) intervention and empiric early administration of bicarbonate. Survival was measured to the emergency department (ED), and data analysis used chi-square with Pearson correlation.
Results: The overall survival rate was 14.2%. There was no age correlate to survival, with an average age of 67.4 for both groups. Male patients had a 2.4-fold increased incidence (70.7 vs. 29.3%, p = 0.001) of arrest, which was associated with a 60% increase in mortality (19.6% vs. 11.8, p = 0.004) compared with women. The risk of unfavorable outcome was increased for men (OR 1.826, 95% CI 1.182-2.821; RR 1.097, 95% CI 1.025-1.180) on univariate analysis. There appeared to be no intergroup differences found with other historical variables, such as the presence of myocardial infarction (MI), hypertension (HTN), diabetes mellitus (DM), congestive heart failure (CHF), and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), which were analyzed. However, HTN was found more commonly (2.2 times) in men (69.1 vs. 30.9%) than in women but did not correlate with survival.
Conclusions: Male gender, but not age, is associated with both an increased incidence and a worsened outcome in prehospital cardiac arrest.

Get full access to this article

View all available purchase options and get full access to this article.

Information & Authors

Information

Published In

cover image Journal of Women's Health
Journal of Women's Health
Volume 12Issue Number 7September 2003
Pages: 667 - 673
PubMed: 14583107

History

Published online: 7 July 2004
Published in print: September 2003

Permissions

Request permissions for this article.

Topics

Authors

Affiliations

Rade B. Vukmir
UPMC Northwest, University of Pittsburgh, Department of Emergency Medicine, and the Safar Center for Resuscitation Research, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

Metrics & Citations

Metrics

Citations

Export citation

Select the format you want to export the citations of this publication.

View Options

Get Access

Access content

To read the fulltext, please use one of the options below to sign in or purchase access.

Society Access

If you are a member of a society that has access to this content please log in via your society website and then return to this publication.

Restore your content access

Enter your email address to restore your content access:

Note: This functionality works only for purchases done as a guest. If you already have an account, log in to access the content to which you are entitled.

View options

PDF/EPUB

View PDF/ePub

Media

Figures

Other

Tables

Share

Share

Copy the content Link

Share on social media

Back to Top