In San Francisco, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest deaths are often misclassified and overestimated, according to a new study published in Circulation.
Researchers from UC San Francisco and the City and County of San Francisco Office of the Chief Medical Examiner reviewed all deaths in San Francisco County between February 2011 and March 2014.
Of the 912 identified as deaths attributed to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, 40 percent did not meet the WHO's criteria for sudden death. Additionally, of the 525 cases that met WHO's criteria and were autopsied, only 55.8 percent were found to be sudden arrhythmic deaths.
Among the 525 autopsies, the leading causes of death were:
• Coronary disease: 32 percent
• Overdose: 13.5 percent
• Cardiomyopathy: 10 percent
• Cardiac hypertrophy: 8 percent
• Neurologic: 5.5 percent
Of the 13.5 percent sudden cardiac deaths, lethal opioid levels were found in 61 percent of the cases.