Effects of weather conditions on emergency ambulance calls for acute coronary syndromes

Abstract

The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between weather conditions and daily emergency ambulance calls for acute coronary syndromes (ACS). The study included data on 3631 patients who called the ambulance for chest pain and were admitted to the department of cardiology as patients with ACS. We investigated the effect of daily air temperature (T), barometric pressure (BP), relative humidity, and wind speed (WS) to detect the risk areas for low and high daily volume (DV) of emergency calls. We used the classification and regression tree method as well as cluster analysis. The clusters were created by applying the k-means cluster algorithm using the standardized daily weather variables. The analysis was performed separately during cold (October-April) and warm (May-September) seasons. During the cold period, the greatest DV was observed on days of low T during the 3-day sequence, on cold and windy days, and on days of low BP and high WS during the 3-day sequence; low DV was associated with high BP and decreased WS on the previous day. During June-September, a lower DV was associated with low BP, windless days, and high BP and low WS during the 3-day sequence. During the warm period, the greatest DV was associated with increased BP and changing WS during the 3-day sequence. These results suggest that daily T, BP, and WS on the day of the ambulance call and on the two previous days may be prognostic variables for the risk of ACS.

Impact of Foehn Wind and Related Environmental Variables on the Incidence of Cardiac Events

“…Contrary to the findings reported by other researchers [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23], the current study did not confirm effects of environmental factors investigated, i.e., air temperature, atmospheric humidity, speed of wind, pressure and total daily precipitation in the incidence of cardiac events, either on halny days or on days preceding the onset of halny, as well as throughout the whole year in the consecutive months from January 2011 to December 2011. The findings showed no statistically significant correlations between the environmental variables and the number of cardiac events in any of the periods analysed (i.e., days with halny, days preceding halny onset, total days with and preceding halny, other days, all the days combined.)…”

“…Based on a review of the literature it can be concluded that many researchers are investigating the association between wind-related environmental variables, and cardio-or cerebrovascular events, including the impact observed on days preceding onset of such weather conditions [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23].…”

“…A large body of evidence reported in the literature shows there is an association between windrelated environmental variables and cardiovascular or cerebrovascular events, with impact observed also on the preceding days [14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Boussoussou et al have reported positive significant association between acute cardiovascular diseases and a cold front effect lagged by one day [14].…”

“…Goerre et al reported that the incidence of myocardial infarctions is significantly affected by wind activity, ambient pressure, and pressure gradient [15]. Vencloviene et al showed that prognostic factors for the risk of acute coronary syndromes include such environmental variables as wind speed, daily air temperature, and barometric pressure on the day of the onset and on the two days preceding the ambulance call [18]. Likewise, Ezekowitz et al showed relationships between the likelihood of an acute coronary event and rapid changes in weather conditions (including excessively frequent increases in wind speed) [19].…”

Correlation between weather and incidence of selected ophthalmological diagnoses: a database analysis

“…Moreover, the incidence of specific diagnoses has been correlated with meteorological data. One study has shown significant effects of cold and windy weather on the incidence of emergency calls regarding acute coronary syndrome or symptoms of elevated arterial blood pressure in an emergency medical service 2. Indeed, not only emergency medical service data but also emergency calling center data have shown that cold weather is often correlated with a higher incidence of hypertensive emergencies and acute coronary syndrome 1,2…”