Abstract

Abstract Introduction Coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most frequent cause of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Although the prompt evaluation of coronary artery in OHCA patients is recommended, it is not easy to identify the CAD by coronary artery angiography (CAG) because OHCA patients often exhibit unstable systemic condition after the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). The Agatston score, which is a popular calcium scoring of coronary artery calcification by computed tomography (CT), is useful for the risk stratification in patients suspected CAD. The impact of coronary artery calcification to predict the existence of CAD in OHCA patients has not been sufficiently elucidated. The usefulness of coronary artery calcification to predict mortality has also been unclear. Purpose We sought to assess the impact of evaluating the Agatston score to predict the existence of coronary artery stenosis and patients' mortality at 30 days in OHCA. Method A total of 748 OHCA patients were transferred to our critical care center, of which 126 cardiovascular arrest patients achieving the ROSC were extracted from the institutional database from January 2017 to December 2018. Among those patients, we performed the whole-body CT scanning in Emergency Department (ED) for 101 patients and evaluated coronary artery by CAG for 82 patients. We assessed their coronary artery calcifications on CT findings, calculating the Agatston score. We investigated the usefulness of the Agatston score to predict the existence of coronary artery stenosis on CAG findings, and patients' mortality at 30 days. Result Both the whole-body CT scanning and CAG were performed in 70 patients. Among those patients, 31 (44.3%) patients had any coronary artery stenosis on CAG findings. The Agatston score was significantly higher in those who had any coronary artery stenosis (p<0.01). The optimal cut off value of the Agatston score to predict the existence of coronary artery stenosis was 9.9 ((Area under the curve (AUC) 0.75; 95% Confidence interval (CI) 0.63 - 0.87). The positive predictive value to predict coronary artery stenosis was 72.5%. In the present study, 101 patients were eligible to be calculated the Agatston score. The Agatston score was significantly higher in those who was dead at 30 days (p=0.04). The optimal cut off value of the Agatston score to predict the 30-days mortality was 15.1 ((Area under the curve (AUC) 0.62; 95% Confidence interval (CI) 0.51 - 0.73). Among the patients who had lower Agatston score (<15.1), 22 (50%) patients survived at 30 days. Conclusion The Agatston score calculated by the whole-body CT scanning in ED is helpful to predict the existence of coronary artery stenosis in OHCA patients. And evaluating the Agatston score is useful to predict mortality in OHCA patients.

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