1. Asthma: analysis of sudden deaths and ventilatory arrests in hospital
- Author
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M R Hetzel, T J Clark, and M A Branthwaite
- Subjects
Risk ,Pediatrics ,medicine.medical_specialty ,Sudden death ,Death, Sudden ,London ,medicine ,Humans ,Prospective Studies ,Respiratory Care Units ,Prospective cohort study ,Retrospective Studies ,General Environmental Science ,Asthma ,Special care unit ,business.industry ,Respiration ,Incidence (epidemiology) ,General Engineering ,Retrospective cohort study ,General Medicine ,medicine.disease ,Hospitalization ,General Earth and Planetary Sciences ,Nocturnal asthma ,Respiratory Insufficiency ,business ,Research Article - Abstract
The incidence of episodes of unexpected ventilatory arrest, some of which led to sudden death, was studied in 1169 consecutive hospital admissions for asthma. Of the most acute cases, 458 were initially managed in a special care unit where only one ventilatory arrest occurred. A further nine cases of arrest, three of which proved fatal, happened on general wards. Accepted clinical criteria of a severe attack were not present in those episodes occurring outside the unit, which were apparently mild attacks. The risk of sudden death could not be related to the severity of the attack but it did correlate with the presence of excessive diurnal variation in peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR). Special treatment of patients with this sign might reduce mortality.
- Published
- 1977
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