Fine particulate matter and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of respiratory origin

Exposure to ambient air pollution increases mortality and is a leading contributor to the global disease burden [1]. Epidemiological studies have elucidated a relationship between out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) and air pollutants, especially particulate matter (diameter ≤2.5 μm; PM 2.5 ) [2, 3]. The causes of OHCA are broadly categorised as cardiac and non-cardiac [4]. A 10 µg·m −3 increase in PM 2.5 exposure yielded a 1.6% increase in the incidence of cardiac origin OHCA [3, 5]. However, few studies on OHCAs of non-cardiac origin, including intrinsic respiratory diseases (COPD/pneumonia/asthma) are available. We examined the association between short-term exposure to PM 2.5 and bystander-witnessed respiratory origin OHCAs, including eventual prognosis. We also investigated differences between PM 2.5 exposure-related cardiac and respiratory origin OHCAs. Particulate matter is a potential risk factor for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) of respiratory origin. The percent increase in incidence of OHCA of respiratory origin is equivalent to that of PM 2.5 exposure-related OHCAs of cardiac origin. http://bit.ly/3tDXym0