Chronic kidney disease and high alcohol consumption appear to be strongly linked to a higher risk of sudden cardiac arrest in Latino adults, shows a study published Wednesday in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

The study, led by Kyndaron Reinier of the Cedars Sinai Health System (CSHS) in Los Angeles, compared a group of 295 Latino adults who suffered cardiac arrest with one of 590 who did not.

The analysis included deaths due to sudden cardiac arrest and survivors aged 18 to 85 years during the cardiac episode, in Latino ethnicity, between February 2015 and January 2021.

The comparison revealed that 51% of patients who suffered cardiac arrest had a previous diagnosis of chronic kidney disease and 20% of them experienced the last phase of the disease and required dialysis.

“We were surprised by the high proportion of Latinos with kidney disease and especially the high rate of dialysis,” said Reinier, associate director of epidemiology at the Center for the Prevention of Cardiac Arrest at the Smidt Heart Institute, about CSHS.

Data analysis showed that sudden arrest was 7.3 times more likely in Latino adults with chronic kidney disease, 4.5 times more likely in people with severe alcohol consumption, and four times more likely in patients with atrial fibrillation.

It is also three times more likely in stroke survivors, three times more likely in those with coronary heart disease, 2.5 times more likely in those with heart disease, and 1.5 times more likely in people with type 2 diabetes.

“The death rate from sudden cardiac arrest is more than 90%, so predicting and preventing this condition has a high priority,” said Reinier.

“Early detection and treatment of chronic kidney disease can help reduce the risk of cardiac arrest in Latinos,” he added.

Sudden cardiac arrest is a sudden and unexpected disruption of heart function and is often fatal if proper care is not provided immediately. Every year about 436,000 people die in the United States due to cardiac arrest.