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Abstract

Over the last decades numerous studies have confirmed that obesity is an aggravating factor on humanﾃ｢ﾂ?ﾂ?s health. The risk of cardiovascular events (acute myocardial infarction/heart attack, cardiac arrest) seems to correlate with increased body mass index (BMI). However, we have conducted a single-center study at the Cardiology ICU of our hospital and our findings were somewhat unexpected. Our study included 84 patients (age: 59.3ﾃ?ﾂｱ12.4 years), 61 men (age: 59.3ﾃ?ﾂｱ12.6 years) and 23 women (age: 59.3ﾃ?ﾂｱ12.3 years). Sixteen patients (19.3%) had normal BMI, 30 patients (36.1%) were overweight, 26 (30.2%) were obese and 12 (14.4%) were morbidly obese. 36,9% of patients were admitted to the hospital during the morning shift, 41,7% during the evening shift and 21,4% during the night shift. Most of the patients (n=61) were admitted on weekdays and less (n=23) on weekends. We have observed increased rates of survival after cardiac arrest among obese patients compared to patients with normal BMI. Particularly, 16% of patients with BMI>25 were alive on admission to the ICU, while only 12.5% of patients with BMI<25 were alive on admission. Survival rates at discharge were 6.2% for BMI<25 patients and 7.3% for BMI>25 patients. Although, this difference was not statistically significant, it still remains a paradox and further larger studies are needed to clarify these findings.

Biography

Ioanna Galatianou is a graduate of Technological Educational Institute of Nursing and Technological Educational Institute of Aesthetics and Cosmetology. She has also received a Post-graduate Master in Science degree on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation, as well as the Basic Life Support, Advanced Life Support and Trauma Nursing Core Course certificates. She currently works at the General Hospital of Nikaia-Piraeus “Agios Panteleimon” in Athens (Greece) and she has a 24-year experience at various departments (ICU, Emergencies, Anesthesiology, Neurosurgery).

Email: p.zogopoulos@yahoo.com