This study looked at whether a person’s risk of sudden cardiac arrest changes over time as they experience repeated heart problems. The researchers followed people who had survived a first major heart event, either an acute coronary syndrome (a sudden drop in blood flow to the heart, a category that includes heart attacks) or heart failure (when the heart cannot pump blood as well as it should), and watched to see who went on to have another such event. They first made their discovery in one large group of patients (about 2,946 people with acute coronary syndrome and 6,711 with heart failure) and then double-checked their findings against a separate, independent group drawn from the long-running Framingham Heart Study.
The study found that a repeat heart event was associated with a higher risk of sudden cardiac arrest, suggesting that risk can change over time. Among people with acute coronary syndrome, those who had a repeat event had a substantially higher risk of cardiac arrest than those who did not, and among people with heart failure, a repeat event was also associated with a higher risk. These findings do not mean that a repeat event will automatically lead to cardiac arrest but suggest that a new cardiovascular event may be an important time for doctors to review a patient’s individual risk. The researchers argue that doctors should re-evaluate a patient’s risk after every new event rather than relying on a single, one-time assessment. This ongoing approach may help doctors identify patients who could benefit from closer monitoring or additional protection.
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SOURCE: Journal of the American Heart Association
Summary written by Adarsh Kabekkodu, SCAF intern