Incidence of coronary intervention in cardiac arrest survivors with non-shockable initial rhythms and no evidence of ST-elevation MI (STEMI).

OBJECTIVE: With the demonstrated benefit of an early-invasive strategy for STEMI and VF/VT arrest patients, there is interest in assessing the potential benefit of early angiography for non-shockable (PEA/Asystole) arrest patients. We hypothesized that in cardiac arrest patients who obtain return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after a non-shockable initial rhythm and do not have STEMI the incidence of coronary intervention would be clinically insignificant (<5%).

METHODS: Retrospective multicenter US clinical registry study of post-cardiac arrest patients at 18 hospitals between 1/00 and 5/14. The incidence of significant coronary artery disease (CAD) as defined by documented coronary intervention (i.e. PCI, angioplasty, stent or CABG) was assessed.

RESULTS: There were 1396 arrest patients with ROSC and known initial rhythms (517/1396=37% shockable; 879/1396=63% nonshockable). 440 (299/440=58% shockable; 141/440=32% nonshockable) of these patients received angiography. In the 141 non-shockable patients that received angiography, 97 patients did not have STEMI listed as an indication for catheterization and 24 (25%) of those had a coronary intervention documented yielding an observed incidence of coronary intervention in non-shockable post-arrest patients without STEMI who received angiography of 24.7% (24/97). Of note, the overall incidence of coronary intervention in all ROSC patients with non-shockable initial rhythms was 5.5% (48/879).

CONCLUSIONS: In this large multi-center retrospective analysis there is a high incidence of coronary intervention in post-arrest patients with initially non-shockable rhythms and without STEMI on ECG who are taken for angiography.