TY - JOUR
T1 - Association of time of occurrence of electrical heart storms with environmental physical activity
AU - Stoupel, Eliiyahu
AU - Kusniec, Jairo
AU - Golovchiner, Gregory
AU - Abramson, Evgeny
AU - Kadmon, Udi
AU - Strasberg, Boris
PY - 2014/8
Y1 - 2014/8
N2 - Aim Many publications in recent decades have reported a temporal link between medical events and environmental physical activity. The aim of this study was to analyze the time of occurrence of electrical heart storms against levels of cosmological parameters. Methods The sample included 82 patients (71 male) with ischemic cardiomyopathy treated with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator at a tertiary medical center in 1999-2012 (5,114 days). The time of occurrence of all electrical heart storms, defined as three or more events of ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation daily, was recorded from the defibrillator devices. Findings were analyzed against data on solar, geomagnetic, and cosmic ray (neutron) activity for the same time period obtained from space institutions in the United States and Russia. Results Electrical storms occurred in all months of the year, with a slight decrease in July, August, and September. Most events took place on days with lower-than-average levels of solar and geomagnetic activity and higher-than-average levels of cosmic ray (neutron) activity. There was a significant difference in mean daily cosmic ray activity between the whole observation period and the days of electrical storm activity (P = 0.0001). Conclusion These data extend earlier findings on the association of the timing of cardiac events and space weather parameters to the most dangerous form of cardiac arrhythmia-electric storms. Further studies are needed to delineate the pathogenetic mechanism underlying this association.
AB - Aim Many publications in recent decades have reported a temporal link between medical events and environmental physical activity. The aim of this study was to analyze the time of occurrence of electrical heart storms against levels of cosmological parameters. Methods The sample included 82 patients (71 male) with ischemic cardiomyopathy treated with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator at a tertiary medical center in 1999-2012 (5,114 days). The time of occurrence of all electrical heart storms, defined as three or more events of ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation daily, was recorded from the defibrillator devices. Findings were analyzed against data on solar, geomagnetic, and cosmic ray (neutron) activity for the same time period obtained from space institutions in the United States and Russia. Results Electrical storms occurred in all months of the year, with a slight decrease in July, August, and September. Most events took place on days with lower-than-average levels of solar and geomagnetic activity and higher-than-average levels of cosmic ray (neutron) activity. There was a significant difference in mean daily cosmic ray activity between the whole observation period and the days of electrical storm activity (P = 0.0001). Conclusion These data extend earlier findings on the association of the timing of cardiac events and space weather parameters to the most dangerous form of cardiac arrhythmia-electric storms. Further studies are needed to delineate the pathogenetic mechanism underlying this association.
KW - cosmic ray activity
KW - electrical heart storm
KW - geomagnetic activity
KW - implantable cardiac defibrillator
KW - solar activity
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=84905992086&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1111/pace.12383
DO - 10.1111/pace.12383
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C2 - 24645938
AN - SCOPUS:84905992086
SN - 0147-8389
VL - 37
SP - 1067
EP - 1070
JO - PACE - Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology
JF - PACE - Pacing and Clinical Electrophysiology
IS - 8
ER -