PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

Middle-aged athletes at low risk for sudden cardiac arrest while exercising

New study in medical journal Circulation also shows those who have a sudden cardiac arrest while playing sports are more likely to survive usually-fatal condition

2015-04-07
(Press-News.org) LOS ANGELES Middle-aged athletes are at low risk for having a sudden cardiac arrest while playing sports, and those who do have a greater chance of surviving the usually-fatal condition, shows a new Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute study.

"Because there is so much media attention when someone has a sudden cardiac arrest while playing sports, we want to make sure people know that the benefits of exercise far outweigh the risk of having a cardiac arrest," said Sumeet S. Chugh, M.D., associate director of the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and a prominent expert in the diagnosis, treatment and investigation of heart rhythm abnormalities. "Even for middle-aged men, who are more susceptible to heart rhythm disturbances, the risk is quite low."

Although "sudden cardiac arrest" and "heart attack" often are used interchangeably, the terms are not synonymous. Unlike heart attacks (myocardial infarctions), which are typically caused by clogged coronary arteries reducing blood flow to the heart muscle, sudden cardiac arrest is the result of defective electrical activity of the heart. Patients may have little or no warning, and the disorder usually causes instantaneous death.

Sudden cardiac arrest has been blamed for the deaths of journalist Tim Russert and filmmaker John Hughes as well as U.S. Olympic volleyball player Flo Hyman and professional basketball players Pete Maravich and Reggie Lewis.

In the study, published in the medical journal Circulation, investigators studied the 1,247 people aged 35-65 from the Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area who had a sudden cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2013. Results include: Just 5 percent, or 63 people, had a sudden cardiac arrest during sports activities. Eighty-seven percent of those who had a sudden cardiac arrest while engaged in sports received cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Fifty-three percent of patients who had a sudden cardiac arrest while not playing sports received cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The survival rate of 23 percent was markedly higher for those who had a sudden cardiac arrest while exercising compared to just 13 percent for those who had a sudden cardiac arrest during other activities. Men were seven times more likely than women to have a sports-related sudden cardiac arrest.

"The chance of surviving sudden cardiac arrest is better if the episode occurs while exercising, probably because there are likely to be others around who can do chest compressions until paramedics arrive," said Chugh, the Pauline and Harold Price Chair in Cardiac Electrophysiology Research.

In addition to his leadership role at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute, Chugh heads the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study, a comprehensive, 16-hospital, multi-year assessment of cardiac deaths in the 1 million population Portland, Oregon, metropolitan area. The data collected in the study - now ongoing for more than a decade - provides Chugh and his team with unique, community-based information to mine for answers to what causes sudden cardiac arrest. Chugh's Sudden Death Genomics Laboratory at the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute is funded by two previous grants from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute that also enable ongoing work on solving the mechanisms of sudden cardiac arrest.

"What this study shows is that most middle-aged athletes don't need to worry about sudden cardiac arrest while they are working out," Chugh said. "As our population ages, it's important to know that older people can exercise without worrying about triggering a heart rhythm disturbance."

INFORMATION:

About the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute The Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute is internationally recognized for outstanding heart care built on decades of innovation and leading-edge research. From cardiac imaging and advanced diagnostics to surgical repair of complex heart problems to the training of the heart specialists of tomorrow and research that is deepening medical knowledge and practice, the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute is known around the world for excellence and innovations.



ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

Physical therapy, surgery produce same results for stenosis in older patients

2015-04-07
PITTSBURGH, April 6, 2015 - Symptoms from lumbar spinal stenosis, an anatomical impairment common with aging, were relieved and function improved in as many patients utilizing physical therapy as those taking the surgical route, University of Pittsburgh researchers discovered in a two-year study published today in Annals of Internal Medicine. It is the first study that clearly compared outcomes between surgery and an evidence-based, standardized physical therapy approach for lumbar spinal stenosis. The condition, created by a narrowing of the spinal canal that puts ...

Physically active middle-aged adults have low risk of sudden cardiac arrest

2015-04-06
DALLAS, April 6, 2015 --Sudden cardiac arrest during sports activities is relatively low among physically active middle-aged adults, according to research in the American Heart Association journal Circulation. Sudden cardiac arrest is the abrupt loss of heart function and usually results from an electrical disturbance in the heart that stops blood flow to other vital organs. Administering CPR immediately after the event, before emergency services arrives, can increase the chance of survival. A review of 1,247 sudden cardiac arrest cases involving men and women ages ...

New test measures deadly protein in Huntington's disease patients' spinal fluid

2015-04-06
A new test has been able to measure for the first time the build-up of a harmful mutant protein in the nervous system of patients during the progression of Huntington's disease (HD). Published today in the Journal of Clinical Investigation, the research team behind the findings hope that the new assay will enable the testing of drugs that aim to lower the production of the pathogenic mutant huntingtin protein that causes the disease, and could be useful in predicting or monitoring the progression of HD. HD is a genetic neurodegenerative disease that usually develops in ...

Emergency rooms see rising rate of patients with chronic conditions, lower rate of injuries

2015-04-06
The rate of emergency department visits in California for non-injuries has risen while the rate of visits for injuries has dropped, according to a new study led by UC San Francisco that documents the increasing amount of care provided in emergency departments for complex, chronic conditions. The research shows the growing importance of non-trauma cases in the emergency department (ED), the authors said, and it provides an opportunity to better understand the health of people as well as shifting patterns of care, especially among vulnerable populations. The findings ...

With breast cancer treatment, you do get what you pay for

2015-04-06
Despite concerns about the increasing costs of treating illnesses like breast cancer, higher treatment costs are linked to better survival rates, according to a study by Yale School of Medicine researchers in the Cancer Outcomes Public Policy and Effectiveness Research (COPPER) Center at Yale School of Medicine and Yale Cancer Center. The study appears in the April issue of Health Affairs. "Our findings indicate that in some instances, newer and costlier approaches may be leading to improved outcomes in breast cancer patients," said senior author Cary P. Gross, M.D., ...

Sound separates cancer cells from blood samples

Sound separates cancer cells from blood samples
2015-04-06
Separating circulating cancer cells from blood cells for diagnostic, prognostic and treatment purposes may become much easier using an acoustic separation method and an inexpensive, disposable chip, according to a team of engineers. "Looking for circulating tumor cells in a blood sample is like looking for a needle in a haystack," said Tony Jun Huang, professor of engineering science and mechanics. "Typically, the CTCs are about one in every one billion blood cells in the sample." Existing methods of separation use tumor-specific antibodies to bind with the cancer ...

Lead hokes the age

2015-04-06
06.04.2015: Rocks do not loose their memory during Earth history but their true ages might be distorted: even under ultra high-temperature metamorphic conditions exceeding 1200°C zircon maintains its lead content accumulated during radioactive decay of uranium and thorium. Giga year old zircon crystals still contain lead in form of nanometre size spheres of pure lead. However, the inhomogeneous spatial distribution of the lead spheres might falsify ages determined from high-resolution Pb isotope measurement with ion probe. Zircon is an ideal mineral for age determination ...

Under the microscope, strong-swimming swamp bacteria spontaneously organize into crystals

Under the microscope, strong-swimming swamp bacteria spontaneously organize into crystals
2015-04-06
Insects form swarms, fish school, birds flock together. Likewise, one species of bacteria forms dynamic, living crystals, says new research from Rockefeller University. Biophysicists have revealed that fast-swimming, sulfur-eating microbes known as Thiovulum majus can organize themselves into a two-dimensional lattice composed of rotating cells, the first known example of bacteria spontaneously forming such a pattern. "The regular, repeated arrangement of the microbial cells shares the geometry of atoms within a mineral crystal, but the dynamics are fundamentally different; ...

Study suggests new role for gene in suppressing cancer

2015-04-06
Scientists at The University of Manchester have discovered that a previously known gene also helps cells divide normally and that its absence can cause tumours. The glucocorticoid receptor (GR) has previously been shown to have a role in cell development, immune response and metabolism. It is found in almost every cell in the body. Many widely used drugs, including prednisolone, act through this protein. The research from Manchester, to be published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), showed a new role for GR after the scientists ...

Neighborhood stigma affects online transactions, NYU researchers find

2015-04-06
The stigma associated with particular neighborhoods has a direct impact on economic transactions, a team of New York University sociologists has found. Their study, which appears in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows that when sellers are seen as being from an economically disadvantaged neighborhood, they receive fewer responses to advertisements placed in online marketplaces. "Advertisements identifying the seller as a resident of a lower-income neighborhood received significantly fewer responses than advertisements identifying the ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

Thirty-year mystery of dissonance in the “ringing” of black holes explained

Less intensive works best for agricultural soil

Arctic rivers project receives “national champion” designation from frontiers foundation

Computational biology paves the way for new ALS tests

Study offers new hope for babies born with opioid withdrawal syndrome

UT, Volkswagen Group of America celebrate research partnership

New Medicare program could dramatically improve affordability for cancer drugs – if patients enroll

Are ‘zombie’ skin cells harmful or helpful? The answer may be in their shapes

University of Cincinnati Cancer Center presents research at AACR 2025

Head and neck, breast, lung and survivorship studies headline Dana-Farber research at AACR Annual Meeting 2025

AACR: Researchers share promising results from MD Anderson clinical trials

New research explains why our waistlines expand in middle age

Advancements in muon detection: Taishan Antineutrino Observatory's innovative top veto tracker

Chips off the old block

Microvascular decompression combined with nerve combing for atypical trigeminal neuralgia

Cutting the complexity from digital carpentry

Lung immune cell type “quietly” controls inflammation in COVID-19

Fiscal impact of expanded Medicare coverage for GLP-1 receptor agonists to treat obesity

State and sociodemographic trends in US cigarette smoking with future projections

Young adults drive historic decline in smoking

NFCR congratulates Dr. Robert C. Bast, Jr. on receiving the AACR-Daniel D. Von Hoff Award for Outstanding Contributions to Education and Training in Cancer Research

Chimpanzee stem cells offer new insights into early embryonic development

This injected protein-like polymer helps tissues heal after a heart attack

FlexTech inaugural issue launches, pioneering interdisciplinary innovation in flexible technology

In Down syndrome mice, 40Hz light and sound improve cognition, neurogenesis, connectivity

Methyl eugenol: potential to inhibit oxidative stress, address related diseases, and its toxicological effects

A vascularized multilayer chip reveals shear stress-induced angiogenesis in diverse fluid conditions

AI helps unravel a cause of Alzheimer's disease and identify a therapeutic candidate

Coalition of Autism Scientists critiques US Department of Health and Human Services Autism Research Initiative

Structure dictates effectiveness, safety in nanomedicine

[Press-News.org] Middle-aged athletes at low risk for sudden cardiac arrest while exercising
New study in medical journal Circulation also shows those who have a sudden cardiac arrest while playing sports are more likely to survive usually-fatal condition