24-Hour survival after cardiopulmonary resuscitation is reduced in patients with diabetes mellitus

Introduction: Diabetes mellitus is a risk factor for cardiovascular disease. Some recent studies have shown an association between diabetes and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest incidence and survival. We aimed to investigate whether there is an association between the presence of diabetes mellitus and survival after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in patients with an in-hospital cardiac arrest.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted during the period of January to February 2014, among 80 cases of cardiopulmonary arrest in patients at Qaem hospital of Mashhad, Iran. A code 99 was announced after a cardiac arrest was identified, and CPR was performed by the cardiac arrest team. Twenty four hour survival was compared in diabetic and non-diabetic patients who had a return to spontaneous circulation after CPR. We used SPSS statistics for Windows version 16 for data analysis.
Results: The return to spontaneous circulation in the diabetic group was not significantly lower than for the non-diabetic group (42.9% versus 61.0% [P = 0.15]). However, the 24-hour survival in the diabetic group was significantly lower than for the non-diabetic group (19.0% versus 44.1% [P = 0.04]).
Conclusion: The presence of diabetes mellitus is associated with a significantly lower rate of survival after CPR.