Pressure on services and viruses may significantly increase the risk to patients experiencing major cardiovascular events in the winter, researchers warn today.
Their finding comes from studying 4,056 people who had treatment over four years.
This showed that heart attacks occur at about the same rate all year, but that the risk of dying within 30 days of a severe heart attack – one that leads to cardiac arrest and cardiogenic shock – is nearly 50% higher in the six coldest months, November to April, than in the summer.
The study is presented today (6 June) at the British Cardiovascular Society Conference in Manchester, UK.
Lead researcher, Dr Arvin Krishnamurthy, Leeds General Infirmary, UK, said: "There is no physical reason why a heart attack, even the most severe, should be more deadly in winter than in summer so we must do further research to find the cause of this difference and remedy it.
"The next step is to find out if this trend is seen nationwide."
She adds that some of the potential explanations could be a delay before treatment in the colder months, prolonged hospitalisation, and the risk of concurrent winter-associated infections for vulnerable patients.
"Further studies interrogating the association between time of admission and outcomes, especially in the sickest and most vulnerable patients, are certainly warranted," she believes.
The British Heart Foundation partially funded the study.
Professor Metin Avkiran of the charity commented: "It’s vital we carry out more research to find out why there are these differences, as well as continuing to do all we can to stop people having heart attacks in the first place."
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