Background: It is well known that ultra-endurance races such as a full distance ironman triathlon causes damage to skeletal and cardiac muscles. However, the underlying factors causing these disturbances are less investigated. In this study we investigated if there is an association between ground reaction forces, measured with accelerometry, during the marathon part of an Ironman triathlon and markers of skeletal and cardiac muscle damage. Our hypothesis is that higher ground reaction forces is positively associated with skeletal and heart muscle damage with no difference between the genders in this association.

Methods: In all 20 (8 women) subjects completed a full distance ironman triathlon (3.8 km swimming, 180 km cycling and 42 km running) and provided a full set of data and was included in the analysis. As markers for skeletal muscle damage, creatin kinas (CK) and myoglobin was analysed. As markers for cardiac muscle damage cardiac troponin t (cTnT), the N-terminal of the prohormone brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) was analysed. Ground reaction forces was estimated using an accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3x). Based on the official transition times we sliced out the raw accelerations for the marathon part of the race and calculated the mean vector magnitude (VM) expressed in milliG per second (mG/s). Due to outliers among the dependent variables, Spearman rank correlations (rho) stratified by sex was calculated.

Results: As seen in figure 1, no significant association between the biomarkers and mechanical stress was observed (all p>0.05).

Conclusion: We did not find any support to our initial hypothesis that there should be a positive association between ground reaction forces and markers of skeletal and heart muscle damage. The small sample size in the groups and the fact that we did not adjust for any potential confounder in this study warrants causing in the interpretation of the results. 

Background 

In Sweden, most out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) occur in private residences and nursing homes. Although studies suggest that nursing home staff appear hesitant to start cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) before ambulance staff arrive, it is unknown whether treatment and outcomes among those who suffer OHCA in nursing homes differ from private residences. The aim of the study was to describe OHCA occurrence, treatment, and 30-day survival in people aged 65 years or older in Swedish nursing homes, in comparison with private residences.

Methods 

This retrospective registry study utilized data from the Swedish Register of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation from 1992 to 2022. The study included 59 459 OHCAs. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, complemented with generalized linear models.

Results 

The number of OHCAs was 56 379 in private residences and 3 080 in nursing homes. While the occurrence of OHCA increased in private residences it remained stable in nursing homes. The overall survival rate in people suffering OHCA in living facilities was 4.4% during the 31-year study period. There was an advantage of 1.0% in 30-days survival for private residences in the unadjusted analyses (p < 0.001), while the adjusted longitudinal model displayed a positive trend in annual survival odds in both private residences (5.6%) and in nursing homes (3.5%), with no difference between the groups (p = 0.207).

Conclusions 

In this registry study, 30-day survival in nursing homes and private residences was similar and improved in both settings. These findings suggest that the location of OHCA is not the primary determinant of survival. Resuscitation decisions should be guided by careful consideration of the patient’s medical condition, frailty, andpersonal preferences. Future initiatives might include strengthening emergency preparedness in nursing homes while supporting ethically justified and patient-centred shared decision-making.

Purpose

To examine the tracking, i.e., the stability, of response in biomarkers signaling cardiac- and skeletal muscle damage after two full distance Ironman races separated by one year.

Methods

Thirteen individuals (7 females) who participated in two Ironman races in Sweden year 2015 and 2016 and had been included in the Iron(WO)man study were investigated. Blood samples were drawn immediately after the race and were analyzed for cardiac troponin T, N-terminal of the prohormone brain natriuretic peptide, myoglobin, creatine kinase and serum creatinine. Stability of the biomarker response between the year-to-year was estimated by calculating tracking coefficients using Spearman correlation.

Results

There were no intra-individual differences in the post-race values in any of the studied biomarkers (all p > 0.05). All tracking coefficients showed a substantial stability (rho = 0.60–0.77).

Conclusion

It appears that there are individuals who are at particular risk of getting high levels of biomarkers signaling cardiac and skeletal muscle damage. However, this secondary analysis was neither designed nor powered to give definite answers and could not rule out the possibility that higher markers in fact represent occult heart disease.

Background: The values and attitudes of healthcare professionals influence their handling of ‘do-not-attempt- resuscitation’ (DNAR) orders. The aim of this study was a) to describe attitudes, perceptions and practices among Swedish physicians and nurses towards discussing cardiopulmonary resuscitation and DNAR orders with patients and their relatives, and b) to investigate if the physicians and nurses were familiar with the national ethical guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Methods: This was a retrospective observational study based on a questionnaire and was conducted at 19 wards in two regional hospitals and one county hospital.

Results: 210 physicians and 312 nurses (n = 522) responded to the questionnaire. Every third (35%) professional had read the guidelines with a lower proportion of physicians (29%) compared to nurses (38%). Around 40% of patients had the opportunity or ability to participate in the DNAR discussion. The DNAR decision was discussed with 38% of patients and the prognosis with 46%. Of the patients who were considered to have the ability to participate in the dis- cussion, 79% did so. The majority (81%) of physicians and nurses believed that patients should always be asked about their preferences before a DNAR decision was made.

Conclusions: Swedish healthcare professionals take a patient’s autonomy into account regarding DNAR decisions. Nevertheless, as 50% of patients were considered unable to participate in the DNAR discussion, questions remain about the timing of patient participation and whether more discussions could have been conducted earlier. Given the uncertainty about timing, the majority of patients deemed competent participated in DNAR discussions.

Knowledge about psychological distress in older cardiac arrest (CA) survivors is sparse, and the lack of comparisons with general populations make it difficult to draw any strong conclusions about prevalence and potential changes caused by CA. Our aim was to compare psychological distress between older CA survivors and a general population. This study included survivors 65–80 years old and an age‐ and sex‐matched general population. Data on survivors was collected from the Swedish Register of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to measure psychological distress. Data were analyzed with non‐ parametric statistics. The final sample included 1,027 CA survivors and 1018 persons from the general population. In both groups, the mean age was 72 years (SD = 4) and 28% were women. The prevalence of anxiety was 9.9% for survivors and 9.5% for the general population, while the corresponding prevalence for depression was 11.3% and 11.5% respectively. Using the cut‐off scores, no significant differences between the groups were detected. However, CA survivors reported significantly lower symptom levels using the subscale scores (ΔMdn = 1, p < 0.001). In conclusion, the CA survivors did not report higher symptom levels of anxiety and depression than the general population. However, since psychological distress is related to poor quality‐of‐life and recovery, screening for psychological distress remains important.

This study examines the association between aerobic capacity and biomarkers of skeletal- and cardiac muscle damage among amateur triathletes after a full distance Ironman. Men and women (N = 55) were recruited from local sport clubs. One month before an Ironman triathlon, they conducted a 20 m shuttle run test to determine aerobic capacity. Blood samples were taken immediately after finishing the triathlon, and analyzed for cardiac Troponin T (cTnT), Myosin heavy chain-a (MHC-a), N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), Creatin Kinas (CK), and Myoglobin. Regression models examining the association between the biomarkers and aerobic capacity expressed in both relative terms (mLO2*kg−1*min−1) and absolute terms (LO2*min−1) controlled for weight were fitted. A total of 39 subjects (26% females) had complete data and were included in the analysis. No association between aerobic capacity and cardiac muscle damage was observed. For myoglobin, adding aerobic capacity (mLO2*kg−1*min−1) increased the adjusted r2 from 0.026 to 0.210 (F: 8.927, p = 0.005) and for CK the adjusted r2 increased from -0.015 to 0.267 (F: 13.778, p = 0.001). In the models where aerobic capacity was entered in absolute terms the adjusted r2 increased from 0.07 to 0.227 (F: 10.386, p = 0.003) for myoglobin and for CK from -0.029 to 0.281 (F: 15.215, p < 0.001). A negative association between aerobic capacity and skeletal muscle damage was seen but despite the well-known cardio-protective health effect of high aerobic fitness, no such association could be observed in this study.

Background: To characterize patients dying in a community hospital with or without attempting cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and to describe patient involvement in, documentation of, and compliance with decisions on resuscitation (Do-not-attempt-to-resuscitate orders; DNAR).

Methods: All patients who died in Kalmar County Hospital during January 1, 2016 until December 31, 2016 were included. All information from the patients’ electronic chart was analysed.

Results: Of 660 patients (mean age 77.7 ± 12.1 years; range 21–101; median 79; 321 (48.6%) female), 30 (4.5%) were pronounced dead in the emergency department after out-of-hospital CPR. Of the remaining 630 patients a DNAR order had been documented in 558 patients (88.6%). Seventy had no DNAR order and 2 an explicit order to do CPR. In 43 of these 70 patients CPR was unsuccessfully attempted while the remaining 27 patients died without attempting CPR. In 2 of 558 (0.36%) patients CPR was attempted despite a DNAR order in place. In 412 patients (73.8%) the DNAR order had not been discussed with neither patient nor family/friends. Moreover, in 75 cases (13.4%) neither patient nor family/friends were even informed about the decision on code status.

Conclusions: In general, a large percentage of patients in our study had a DNAR order in place (88.6%). However, 27 patients (4.3%) died without CPR attempt or DNAR order. DNAR orders had not been discussed with the patient/surrogate in almost three fourths of the patients. Further work has to be done to elucidate the barriers to discussions of CPR decisions with the patient.

Objective It has been suggested that the mechanism behind cardiac troponin elevation after strenuous exercise is passage through a cell membrane with changed permeability rather than myocardial cell death. We hypothesised that an increase of cardiac specific myosin heavy chain-alpha (MHC-α; 224 kDa compared with cardiac troponin T’s (cTnT) 37 kDa) could hardly be explained by passage through a cell membrane.

Methods Blood samples were collected from 56 athletes (15 female, age 42.5±9.7, range 24–70 years) before, directly after and on days 1–8 after an Ironman. Biomarkers (C reactive protein (CRP), cTnT, creatinekinase (CK), MHC-α, myoglobin (MG), creatinine (C) and N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NTproBNP) were measured.

Results The course of MHC-α concentration (μg/L) was 1.33±0.53 (before), 2.57±0.78 (directly after), 1.51±0.53 (day 1), 2.74±0.55 (day 4) and 1.83±0.76 (day 6). Other biomarkers showed a one-peaked increase with maximal values either directly after the race or at day 1: cTnT 76 ±80 ng/L (12–440; reference<15), NT-proBNP 776±684 ng/L (92–4700; ref.<300), CK 68±55 μkat/L (5–280; ref.<1.9), MG 2088±2350 μg/L (130–17 000; ref.<72) and creatinine 100±20 μmol/L (74–161; ref.<100), CRP 49±23 mg/L(15–119; ref.<5).

Conclusion MHC-α exhibited a two-peaked increase which could represent a first release from the cytosolic pool and later from cell necrosis. This is the first investigation of MHC-α plasma concentration afterexercise.

INTRODUCTION: There is an ongoing debate about the impact of endurance exercise on cardiovascular health. Not at least data on cardiac biomarker changes (e.g. troponin T (cTnT), N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP) and cardiac specific myosin heavy chain-alpha (MHC-α) have raised questions about exercise related cardiac injury. METHODS: In 52 non-elite athletes (14 female, 38 male; age 41.1 ± 9.7, range 24-70 years; all completed the race) biomarkers were measured by standard laboratory methods 7 days before, directly after, and day 1, 4 and 6 after a full Ironman distance triathlon (Swim 3.9 km, Bike 180 km, Run 42.2 km) . In 19 of these athletes (9 female, 10 male) echocardiography with 30 different standard measurements was performed before and directly after the race. RESULTS: Only MHC-α [µg/L] showed a two-peaked increase directly after (2.57 ± 0.78) and on day 4 (2.74 ± 0.55). Other biomarkers showed a one-peaked increase with maximal values either directly after the race or at day 1: cTnT 76 ± 80 ng/L (12-440; reference <15), NT-proBNP 776 ± 684 ng/L (92-4700; ref. < 300), CK 68 ± 55 µkat/L (5-280; ref. < 1.9), MG 2088 ± 2350 µg/L (130-17000; ref.< 72), and creatinine 100 ± 20 µmol/L (74-161; ref. < 100), CRP 49 ± 23 mg/L (15-119; ref.< 5). No significant echocardiographic changes were recorded. E.g. left ventricular end diastolic diameter (49.0 ± 4.7 mm before, 47.7 ± 5.0 mm after the race, right ventricular end diastolic diameter (34.3 ± 4.3 mm before, 33.3 ± 5.7 mm after the race), right atrial area (17.5 ± 2.9 cm2 before, 17.7 ± 3.6 cm2 after the race) and left atrial area (18.8 ± 3.7 cm2 before, 17.8 ± 2.2 cm2 after the race) did not show any significant acute changes. CONCLUSION: While an Ironman leads to remarkable disturbances in biomarkers as e.g. cTnT after the race was in the range of myocardial infarction in 100% of women and 97% of men, these alterations were not correlated to any acute echocardiographic changes in heart size or function. However, the significance of biochemical evidence of cardiac injury on long-term heart function and cardiovascular health remains unclear.