Vitamin C levels amongst initial survivors of out of hospital cardiac arrest

Introduction: Vitamin C deficiency has been described in patients with sepsis. The post-cardiac arrest syndrome shares similarities to sepsis, however vitamin C levels in post-arrest patients have been incompletely characterized. We assessed vitamin C levels in a post-arrest population.

Methods: This was a retrospective observational study at a tertiary care center. A convenience sample of post-arrest, sepsis, and healthy control patients was selected from prior studies. Vitamin C levels were measured from samples obtained within 6-h of emergency department admission. A subset of cardiac arrest patients had vitamin C levels additionally measured 24-h later.

Results: A total of 84 patients (34 healthy controls, 25 post-arrest, and 25 septic patients) were included. The median baseline vitamin C level in cardiac arrest patients was 0.33 mg/dL (0.05-0.83), as compared to 0.91 mg/dL (0.69-1.48) in the healthy control group (p < 0.01) and 0.28 mg/dL (0.11-0.59) in the septic group (p = 0.36). Vitamin C levels for cardiac arrest patients fell between the two time points, but the change was not statistically significant (median decrease 0.26 mg/dL, p = 0.08).

Conclusions: Serum vitamin C levels were lower in post-arrest patients compared to controls and were similar to patients with sepsis. Future studies of vitamin C levels and supplementation following cardiac arrest may be warranted.