Predictors of Obstructive Coronary Disease and Mortality in Adults Having Cardiac Arrest

Coronary angiography is a key component of systematic, multi-disciplinary post-cardiac arrest (CA) care, however, coronary angiogram is not routinely performed in the setting of CA. We sought to identify the predictors of obstructive coronary artery disease (CAD) and mortality in adults with CA undergoing coronary angiogram. The study population included 208 consecutive patients hospitalized with CA who underwent resuscitation and subsequent coronary angiogram at an academic tertiary medical center. The primary outcome of interest was presence of obstructive CAD, defined as >1 coronary artery with >70% stenosis or >1 coronary bypass graft with >70% stenosis. The secondary outcome of interest was in-hospital mortality. Of the 208 patients studied, 160 (76.9%) had obstructive CAD while 48 (23.1%) did not. In-hospital mortality occurred in 47 patients (22.6%). In multivariate analysis, ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) (OR 7.69, 95% CI 2.89 to 20.51), defibrillation (OR 4.90, 95% CI 1.19 to 20.17), vasopressors (OR 3.53, 95% CI 1.15 to 10.81), and absence of therapeutic hypothermia (OR 0.38, 95% CI 0.15 to 0.98) were independently associated with presence of obstructive CAD while STEMI (OR 3.21, 95% CI 1.01 to 10.24), vasopressors (OR 4.92, 95% CI 1.78 to 13.62), therapeutic hypothermia (OR 3.89, 95% CI 1.47 to 10.31), and admission blood urea nitrogen (OR 1.06, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.11) were independently associated with higher rates of in-hospital mortality. In this observational contemporary study, predictors of obstructive CAD and mortality exist in adults with CA undergoing coronary angiogram. Such risk models may aid in identification of CA patients who will benefit from early angiography and percutaneous coronary intervention.