Firefighters who died from cardiac arrest were much more likely than those who died of other causes to show signs of both atherosclerotic and hypertensive heart disease at autopsy, according to new research in Journal of the American Heart Association, the Open Access Journal of the American Heart Association/American Stroke Association.
Among firefighters, more job-related deaths stem from cardiac arrest than from any other cause. To understand which heart diseases affect firefighters who die of cardiac arrest, this study looked at autopsy reports for firefighters who had died in the line of duty. Results showed that the most common diseases were narrowed arteries, or coronary artery disease, and structural abnormalities. These abnormalities included an enlarged heart (cardiomegaly) and increased wall thickness (hypertrophy) of the heart’s primary chamber for pumping blood, or left ventricle.