THURSDAY, Oct. 12, 2023 (HealthDay News) -- Hispanic folks with chronic kidney disease should have early heart health screenings, new research suggests, because they’re at high risk for sudden cardiac arrest.

A team from the Smidt Heart Institute at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles discovered this while working to learn about possible causes for the heart unexpectedly stopping.

“Because people who experience sudden cardiac arrest have a survival rate of less than 10%, prevention is extremely important,” said study author Kyndaron Reinier, associate director of epidemiology in the Center for Cardiac Arrest Prevention at the Smidt Heart Institute.

“This study highlights the importance for Hispanic and Latino individuals with chronic kidney disease to understand their risk of sudden cardiac arrest, and to closely monitor and manage their renal disease with their medical care team,” she said in an institute news release.

The research was part of an ongoing study dubbed PRESTO, short for Prediction of Sudden Death in Multi-Ethnic Communities.

Researchers reviewed information from more than 1,400 adults in Ventura County, Calif., who had sudden cardiac arrest between 2015 and 2021. That included 295 Hispanic people.

They were compared with 590 Hispanic adults who were participants in a larger health study in San Diego. They had one medical exam between 2008 and 2011 and another between 2014 and 2017.

Researchers found that people who suffered sudden cardiac arrest were more likely to have had chronic kidney disease, a stroke, atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure, diabetes or to have been heavy drinkers.

Among those with sudden cardiac arrest, 51% had chronic kidney disease, and about 20% were on dialysis when their heart stopped beating.

“This study is the first we know of to analyze risk factors for sudden cardiac arrest among U.S. Hispanic and Latino individuals,” said senior study author Dr. Sumeet Chugh, director of Smidt's Center for Cardiac Arrest Prevention and lead on the PRESTO research.

The PRESTO study was partly funded by the U.S. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute. Study findings were published Oct. 10 in the Journal of the American Heart Association.

Reinier hopes the findings will lead to more research on links between chronic kidney disease and sudden cardiac arrest.

More information

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has more on chronic kidney disease.

SOURCE: Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, news release, Oct. 11, 2023