News Release

DOCTOR AUTHORS ARTICLE ON CARDIAC ARREST STUDY

March 16, 2004 — Male gender is associated with both increased incidence and worsened outcome in one pre-hospital cardiac arrest study, according to a Journal of Women’s Health article authored by Rade Vukmir, MD, UPMC Northwest’s physician director of emergency services.

Dr. Vukmir’s study was a prospective multi-center trial with a secondary analysis of data involving 874 pre-hospital cardiac arrest patients in a variety of environments including urban, suburban, and rural emergency medicine areas. The study found an overall survival rate of 14.2 percent, meaning that one in every seven patients who went into cardiac arrest in the pre-hospital realm survived to the emergency department.

Of interest, however, was the male predominance in incidence (the number of men who experienced arrest was more than double the number of women) and mortality (the number of male deaths was 60 percent higher than the number of women who died). Men also in the study had a much higher incidence of hypertension, again more than double the rate for females in the trial, but this fact alone did not contribute to the higher mortality rate, the article notes.

These findings raise other issues, possibly genetic or environmental, that may predispose males to both a higher incidence and worsened outcome in pre-hospital cardiac arrest, Dr. Vukmir’s article concludes.

Individuals can obtain more information about the study or the article by contacting Dr. Vukmir at UPMC Northwest, 814-437-4584.