“For some people, the first heart attack is more likely to be their last,” said Elsayed Z. Soliman, M.D., M.Sc., M.S., director of the Epidemiological Cardiology Research Center (EPICARE) at Wake Forest Baptist and lead author of the study. “For these people especially, it is important that we find ways to prevent that first heart attack from ever happening because their chances of living through it are not as good.” While there are many traits that are common among heart attack patients -- both those who survive the event and those who die suddenly -- researchers found that some traits, such as hypertension, race/ethnicity, body mass index (BMI), heart rate, and additional markers that can be identified by an electrocardiogram (ECG) can differentiate between dying suddenly versus living through a heart attack, Soliman said.
