Abstract 16192: Abnormal Sinus Node Response Identifies Diabetics at Increased Risk of Sudden Cardiac Arrest

Introduction: Diabetes is an increasingly prevalent disease that is independently associated with increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), with an urgent need to identify novel risk markers. Heart rate variability (HRV) identifies autonomic dysfunction, also more prevalent in diabetes. We performed an analysis of the overlap between diabetes and autonomic dysfunction by measuring HRV. Methods: Prior studies have been limited due to lack of diabetic SCA cases and recordings for HRV measurement. We leveraged a unique population with sufficient cases as well as archived pre-SCA 12-lead EKGs. SCA cases (age 30-59, 2002-2014) from an ongoing study in the Northwestern US (population approx. 1 million) were compared to geographic controls. Short-term HRV was calculated from a digitized 10 sec rhythm strip. We examined the relationship between HRV and resting heart rate (RHR) in diabetic SCA cases and controls compared to non-diabetic SCA cases and controls. Results: We analyzed 313 subjects (mean age 52.4±...