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Cardiac Arrest has seen a steady rise in its cases in the past few decades. This rise was particularly sharp during the duration of covid pandemic. Every few days in the covid pandemic era there was some sad news of someone known to us passing away from cardiac arrest. There was no scientific study backing this observation. But recently a study was conducted which gives strong evidence of the relation between covid 19 infection and the rise in cardiac arrest cases due to it.
Findings of research in Cardiac Arrest due to Covid
First time a specific research has been conducted by the scientists of the USA on the residents of Ventura County in California to find out the percentage rise of cardiac arrests seen in the two years of covid. This research has been conducted to find out the different rates of cardiac arrest in different ethnic groups enabling the scientists to find out the ethnicity majorly affected by covid in terms of health. All the data from the two years of the pandemic has been analyzed by the scientists and it is found that there has been a 33 percent increase in the cases of sudden cardiac arrest since the pandemic began.
The researchers further noticed that the ethnicity majorly affected was Hispanic, as the Hispanic residents in Ventura County had a 77 percent increase in the sudden cardiac arrest cases.
Researchers said that sudden cardiac arrest causes sudden loss of heart function which can be fatal to the life of the patient and their rates have increased sharply during the covid pandemic.
Another point found in the study by the researchers of Smidt Heart Institute located in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, that the survival rate from sudden cardiac arrest overall dropped to 10 percent only from the previous 15.3 percent during the covid pandemic.
According to Dr. Sumeet Chugh who is the Director of Centre for Cardiac Arrest Prevention in the Smidt Heart Institute, said that these findings which cover the whole covid 19 pandemic are real world based and they have uncovered the important challenges faced by the different ethnic groups and this can be addressed to help the community in the events of future outbreaks.
Cardiac Arrest due to Indirect Effects
Dr. Kyandaron Reinier who is a research associate professor in the department of cardiology in Smidt further added that the rise in the sudden cardiac cases in the covid 19 pandemic could be the direct result of covid 19 infection but they also have a suspicion that the indirect effects of the pandemic in whole also played a crucial role in the high incidence of cardiac arrest and also in the decline of survival in these arrests. He further added that this study emphasizes the importance of emergent and preventive care in the future outbreaks of covid 19 or any other entirely different pandemic.
The indirect effects are all the other economic and mental causes seen in the pandemic due to restrictions issued in the lockdown. The patients may have had a delay in getting the preventive care for their respective conditions. There may have been an unavailability of bed for the non covid patients. People may have even hesitated to book an appointment due to the widespread covid infection and having the fear of contacting it. There could have been a delay for the ambulance to reach the patients in the busy period of pandemic. Some might have not been able to afford the care due to the economic purge.
This whole study was published in the peer-reviewed Medical Journal Heart Rhythm. According to the report published the bystanders declined to do CPR in the County area in fear of contracting the disease. This was especially seen in the Hispanic residents.
