Elevated Plasma Homocysteine is One of the Risk Factors for Sudden Cardiac Death in Japanese

Objective Hyperhomocysteinemia has been reported to be independent risk factor for myocardial infarction and death in coronary artry disease in abroad. To investigate the clinical signficance of plasma homocysteine in Japanese sudden cardiac death, we assussud its levels in cardiopulmonary arrest victims caused by cardiac etiology. Methods Plasma homocysteine was determined by a high-performance liquid chromatograph with a fluorometric detector. Patients Homocysteine was determned by a cardiopulmonary arrest (CPA) victims and in 104 healthy ccontrol subjects. The CPA patients were classified in the three groups based on the etiology, I.e., cardigenic, noncardiogenic (such as bronchial asthma and subarachnoid hemorrhage), or accidental (such as asphyxia and hanging ) CPA group. Results Plasma homocysteine in cardiogenic CPA patients was higher than that in noncardiogenic and accidental CPA patients, or in healthy control subjects. Plasma homocysteine in healthy men was higher than that in healthy women. Additionaly, homcysteine levels decreased progressively with age in healthy subjects (p＜0.05).Conclusion These results demonstrated that high plasma homocysteine is a significant risk factor for sudden cardiac death and that a warning is inevitable for male younger generation in japanese.

Cardiac arrest

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)

Out-of-hospital CPR