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COVID-19 Testing Among Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients: Implications for Public Health
Roger M Stone1,2, Benjamin T Kaufman1, Timothy A Burns1
1Montgomery County (MD) Fire and Rescue Service, Gaithersburg, Maryland.
Prehospital Emergency Care
|July 26, 2023
Summary
COVID-19 positivity was higher in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients than the general community. Postmortem testing by emergency medical services (EMS) identified cases missed by typical surveillance.
Area of Science:
- Public Health
- Epidemiology
- Emergency Medicine
Background:
- Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients present unique challenges for disease surveillance.
- Understanding COVID-19 prevalence in this population is crucial for public health and occupational safety.
Purpose of the Study:
- To compare COVID-19 test positivity rates between OHCA patients whose resuscitation efforts were terminated in the field and the general community.
- To evaluate the utility of postmortem COVID-19 testing in OHCA patients.
Main Methods:
- Retrospective cohort study of OHCA patients with terminated resuscitation.
- Postmortem COVID-19 nasal swabs collected by emergency medical services (EMS) personnel.
- Comparison of test positivity rates using chi-square and Pearson correlation analyses.
Main Results:
- Of 628 successfully tested OHCA patients, 11.0% were COVID-19 positive.
- The general community positivity rate was 5.1% during the study period.
- OHCA patients had significantly higher COVID-19 positivity (11.0% vs 5.1%) with a strong correlation in monthly trends.
Conclusions:
- COVID-19 was over-represented in OHCA patients compared to the general population.
- Postmortem testing by EMS identified infectious cases, suggesting potential for future public health surveillance applications.
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