Abstract P028: High Framingham General Cardiovascular Disease Risk Scores in Victims of Out of Hospital Sudden Death

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Introduction: Individuals with a history of cardiovascular disease (CVD) have a high risk of out-of-hospital sudden unexpected death (OHSUD). However, most OHSUDs occur in victims without a prior history of CVD. Information on CVD risk in these victims is scarce. Hypothesis: We hypothesized that OHSUD victims who had no prior diagnosis of CVD have higher 10-year CVD risk compared to a matched living control population. Methods: OHSUD cases were adjudicated from all emergency medical service attended out-of-hospital deaths aged 30-64 in Wake County, NC between 2013-2015. Age group and gender-matched controls were randomly selected from Wake County residents who visited a local healthcare facility over the same period (~3:1 match ratio). We obtained two years of medical records prior to death (cases) or last visit (controls). After excluding individuals with a history of CVD, we calculated the 10-year risk of CVD for each subject using the published general CVD algorithms by D'Agostino et al. Risk was classified into low (<6%), moderate (6%-20%), and high (>20%). Results: Among subjects without CVD, we included 106 cases and 414 controls who had sufficient data for calculating Framingham risk score. Gender distribution was similar in both case and control groups. The average 10-year risk of CVD was higher for OHSUDs than controls (29% vs. 16%, p=<0.0001). Similar results were found in both men (34% vs. 19%, p=<0.0001) and women (11% vs. 7.3%, p=0.0005). A larger proportion of OHSUDs were considered “high risk” compared to controls (57% (60 of 106) vs. 28% (114 of 414), p=<0.001). This finding remained significant when stratified by gender (Figure). Conclusion: The majority of out of hospital sudden death victims without known CVD are at high risk of cardiovascular disease. This finding bolsters the essential role of office-based risk assessment tools in identifying high risk patients antemortem. Targeted interventions for intensive CVD risk reduction may lead to a decrease in sudden deaths.