Abstract
The incidence of episodes of unexpected ventilatory arrest, some of which led to sudden death, was studied in 1169 consecutive hospital admissions for asthma. Of the most acute cases, 458 were initially managed in a special care unit where only one ventilatory arrest occurred. A further nine cases of arrest, three of which proved fatal, happened on general wards. Accepted clinical criteria of a severe attack were not present in those episodes occurring outside the unit, which were apparently mild attacks. The risk of sudden death could not be related to the severity of the attack but it did correlate with the presence of excessive diurnal variation in peak expiratory flow rate (PEFR). Special treatment of patients with this sign might reduce mortality.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Cochrane G. M., Clark J. H. A survey of asthma mortality in patients between ages 35 and 64 in the Greater London hospitals in 1971. Thorax. 1975 Jun;30(3):300–305. doi: 10.1136/thx.30.3.300. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Crompton G. K., Grant I. W. Edinburgh emergency asthma admission service. Br Med J. 1975 Dec 20;4(5998):680–682. doi: 10.1136/bmj.4.5998.680. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Karetzky M. S. Asthma mortality: an analysis of one years experience, review of the literature and assessment of current modes of therapy. Medicine (Baltimore) 1975 Nov;54(6):471–484. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Macdonald J. B., Seaton A., Williams D. A. Asthma deaths in Cardiff 1963-74: 90 deaths outside hospital. Br Med J. 1976 Jun 19;1(6024):1493–1495. doi: 10.1136/bmj.1.6024.1493. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rebuck A. S., Read J. Assessment and management of severe asthma. Am J Med. 1971 Dec;51(6):788–798. doi: 10.1016/0002-9343(71)90307-x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Rees H. A., Millar J. S., Donald K. W. A study of the clinical course and arterial blood gas tensions of patients in status asthmaticus. Q J Med. 1968 Oct;37(148):541–561. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Williams M. H., Jr, Levin M. Sudden death from bronchial asthma. Am Rev Respir Dis. 1966 Oct;94(4):608–611. doi: 10.1164/arrd.1966.94.4.608. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]