title: Characteristics of patients with cardiac arrest caused by coronary vasospasm.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although coronary vasospasm (CVS) would be one of the major causes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), the characteristics of patients with cardiac arrest caused by CVS have not been clarified.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In study 1, 1,000 consecutive patients with OHCA were retrospectively categorized based on the cause of OHCA, and the prevalence of CVS OHCA was elucidated. In study 2, 138 consecutive CVS patients were divided into 2 groups: CVS with cardiac arrest (arrest-CVS, n=12) and CVS without cardiac arrest (non-arrest-CVS, n=126). In study 1, 589 patients had OHCA caused by cardiovascular disease and 121 patients were successfully resuscitated. Among the 121 resuscitated patients, 9 had CVS OHCA. In study 2, the incidence of cardiac events (ie, cardiac arrest or chest pain) occurring on vigorous exertion, in the daytime and without prodromal chest symptoms was higher in the arrest-CVS group than in the non-arrest-CVS group.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CVS is an important cause of OHCA. Because significantly different characteristics are observed between CVS patients with cardiac arrest and those without, care should be taken to diagnose CVS as the cause of cardiac arrest.
authors.affiliation: Division of Intensive Care Unit, Chiba-Hokusoh Hospital, Nippon Medical School, Tokyo, Japan. s5047@nms.ac.jp
authors.forename: Nobuaki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Kobayashi
authors.forename: Noritake
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Hata
authors.forename: Tetsuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shimura
authors.forename: Shinya
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Yokoyama
authors.forename: Akihiro
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Shirakabe
authors.forename: Takuro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Shinada
authors.forename: Kazunori
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Tomita
authors.forename: Daisuke
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Murakami
authors.forename: Masamichi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Takano
authors.forename: Yoshihiko
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Seino
authors.forename: Hisashi
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Matsumoto
authors.forename: Kunihiro
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mashiko
authors.forename: Kyoichi
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Mizuno
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002637:Chest Pain / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D003329:Coronary Vasospasm / Q000150:complications*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D058687:Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000209:etiology* / Q000503:physiopathology; D005082:Physical Exertion / Q000502:physiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012189:Retrospective Studies