Measuring the level of sex hormones in patients' blood could help determine their risk of suffering sudden cardiac arrest, which is fatal in 90 percent of all victims.
A recent study suggests lower levels of testosterone exist in men with higher risks of cardiac arrest; higher levels of estradiol (a major female hormone) were observed to increase cardiovascular risk in both men and women, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center reported.
"Because sudden cardiac arrest is usually fatal, we are constantly looking for ways to predict which patients are susceptible so we can concentrate on prevention," said Sumeet Chugh, MD, director of the Heart Rhythm Center in the Cedars-Sinai Heart Institute and the Pauline and Harold Price Chair in Cardiac Electrophysiology Research. "If we wait until someone has a sudden cardiac arrest, it is usually too late for treatment."
Unlike heart attacks (which are caused by clogged arteries to the heart), sudden cardiac arrest is caused by defective electrical impulses. The medical event can occur out of nowhere, and affects between 250,000 and 300,000 people in the U.S. every year.
Despite the advancement of modern medicine, only about five percent of people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest survive.
Patients who are known to have a high risk of cardiac arrest are often fitted with an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, or ICD to detect abnormal electrical impulses.
To make their findings researchers measured the blood hormone levels in 149 patients who suffered sudden cardiac arrest and compared the results with those of 149 patients with coronary artery disease who did not go through sudden cardiac arrest.
"This is the first time it has been reported that there is an association between sex hormone levels and sudden cardiac arrest," Chugh said. "While these findings need to be confirmed by other studies, they suggest that higher testosterone levels in men may offer protection from sudden cardiac arrest and lower levels of estrogen may protect both men and women."
The findings were published in a recent edition of the journal Heart Rhythm.
