Burden and impact of arrhythmias in asthma‐related hospitalizations: Insight from the national inpatient sample

Background This study aimed to analyze the burden and impact of cardiac arrhythmias in adult patients hospitalized with asthma exacerbation using the nationwide inpatient database. Methods We used the National Inpatient Sample (NIS) database (2010‐2014) to identify arrhythmias in asthma‐related hospitalization and its impact on inpatient mortality, hospital length of stay (LOS), and hospitalization charges. We also used multivariable analysis to identify predictors of in‐hospital arrhythmia and mortality. Results We identified 12,988,129 patients hospitalized with primary diagnosis of asthma; among them, 2,014,459(16%) patients had cardiac arrhythmia. The most frequent arrhythmia identified is atrial fibrillation (AFib) (8.95%). The AFib and non‐AFib arrhythmia group had higher mortality (3.40% & 2.22% vs 0.74%), mean length of stay (LOS) (5.9 & 5.4 vs 4.2 days), and hospital charges ($53,172 & $51,105 vs $34,585) as compared to the non‐arrhythmia group (P