Lunar phases are not related to the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death.
BACKGROUND
Mass media deliver pertinacious rumours that lunar phases influence the progress and long-term results in several medical procedures. Peer reviewed studies support this, e.g. in myocardial infarction, others do not.


METHODS
We looked retrospectively at the dates of cardiac arrests (CA; n=368) of cardiac origin and of acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) with consecutive thrombolytic therapy or acute PTCA (n=872) and at the lunar phases at the corresponding dates. Medical data had been collected prospectively on the patient's admission. The lunar phases were defined as full moon+/-1 day, new moon+/-1 day and the days in between as waning and waxing moon. The incidence of these cardiac events at each phase was calculated as days with a case divided by the total number of days of the specific moon phase in the observation period (1992-1998). Wilcoxon Rank Test was used for statistical analysis.


RESULTS
AMI and CA occurred on equal percentages of days within each lunar phase: AMI on 35% of all days with new moon, on 38% of full moon days, on 39% waning, and on 41% of the waxing moon days; CA on 19, 17, 16 and 16% of all days of the respective lunar phase. This difference was not significant.


CONCLUSIONS
Lunar phases do not appear to correlate with acute coronary events leading to myocardial infarction or sudden cardiac death.
Eisenburger
Philip
P
Department of Emergency Medicine, University Clinics, General Hospital Vienna, Waehringer Guertel 18-20/6/D, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
Schreiber
Wolfgang
W
Vergeiner
Gernot
G
Sterz
Fritz
F
Holzer
Michael
M
Herkner
Harald
H
Havel
Christof
C
Laggner
Anton N
AN
D015906:Angioplasty, Balloon, Coronary / Q000009:adverse effects* / Q000379:methods; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac / Q000453:epidemiology*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D016081:Moon; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D011336:Probability; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D018570:Risk Assessment; D012307:Risk Factors; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D016019:Survival Analysis