The risk of cardiac mortality in patients with status epilepticus: A 10-year study using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

OBJECTIVE

To explore whether status epilepticus affected cardiac mortality.

METHODS

We used the 2008-2017 multicause mortality data of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Wide-ranging Online Data for Epidemiological Research. The status epilepticus group included patients whose death certificates mentioned status epilepticus as contributing to death. The non-status epilepticus group included patients whose death certificates mentioned epilepsy, other and unspecified convulsions, febrile convulsions, or post-traumatic seizures, as contributing to death. The outcomes for evaluation were death certificates that indicated that myocardial infarction, arrhythmia, heart failure, or cardiac arrest (CA) was the immediate cause of death. The numbers of deaths and population sizes by categorical demographics were recorded and subjected to multiple logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS

Among the 14,487 death certificates in status epilepticus group; 3080 patients (21.3%) died of CA. When clinical records were compared to autopsy data, females were at a lower risk of myocardial infarction (odds ratio [OR]: 0.55, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.51-0.61). Patients aged 45-65 years and older than 65 years were at a higher risk of developing all four cardiac complications. Status epilepticus was associated with higher risks of arrhythmia (OR: 1.55, 95% CI: 1.11-2.15) and CA (OR: 4.34, 95% CI: 3.49-5.39) but a reduced risk of myocardial infarction (OR: 0.42, 95% CI: 0.30-0.57) as the cause of immediate death.

CONCLUSION

The frequency of CA in patients with status epilepticus increased between 2008 and 2017. Male and elderly patients were at a higher risk of cardiogenic mortality.