Circadian, weekly, and seasonal mortality variations in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Japan: analysis from AMI-Kyoto Multicenter Risk Study database.
BACKGROUND
Several studies have reported circadian, weekly, and seasonal variations in the rates of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, variations in the mortality of OHCA are not well known.


RESULTS
We investigated the 1396 consecutive cases of OHCA with cardiac etiology between October 2004 and September 2008. There were 2 peaks in the occurrence of OHCA in early morning and late evening. There was a weekly pattern with an increased incidence on Mondays. We found a significant seasonal variation in the frequency of events, with a maximum during winter. There was a trend of reduced mortality in warmest 3 months, especially among a subgroup of ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia with arrest witnessed.


CONCLUSIONS
The present analyses demonstrated circadian, weekly and seasonal variations in the occurrence, and a seasonal variation in mortality in OHCA. Changes in temperature might influence the severity of OHCA and change the rate of success of cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
Nakanishi
Naohiko
N
Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine, Kyoto, Japan. naka-nao@koto.kpu-m.ac.jp
Nishizawa
Shinya
S
Kitamura
Yohei
Y
Nakamura
Takeshi
T
Matsumuro
Akiyoshi
A
Sawada
Takahisa
T
Matsubara
Hiroaki
H
D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D002940:Circadian Rhythm; D016208:Databases, Factual; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D058687:Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D012621:Seasons; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D013696:Temperature; D013997:Time Factors; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality