Cardiac arrest symptoms may come weeks in advance: study

Dallas – Chest pain and other heart attack symptoms may occur up to a month before a person experiences sudden cardiac arrest, warns a new study from the Los Angeles-based Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute.

Using data from the Oregon Sudden Unexpected Death Study, researchers analyzed 567 men who went into sudden cardiac arrest between 2002 and 2012. More than half – 53 percent – of the men had advance symptoms, usually between four weeks and one hour before they went into sudden cardiac arrest.

Among participants who had advance symptoms, chest pain was most common (56 percent), followed by shortness of breath (13 percent) and dizziness, fainting, or palpitations (4 percent), according to a press release.

Additionally, most of the men in the study had coronary artery disease, but about half had not been tested for it beforehand.

The study was presented in November at the American Heart Association’s Scientific Sessions.