Over the last decades numerous studies have confirmed that obesity is an aggravating factor on human\'s health. The risk of cardiovascular events (acute myocardial infarction/heart attack, cardiac arrest) seems to correlate with increased body mass index (BMI). However, we have conducted a single-center study at the Cardiology ICU of our hospital and our findings were somewhat unexpected. Our study included 84 patients (age: 59,3±12,4 years), 61 men (age: 59,3±12,6 years) and 23 women (age: 59,3±12,3 years). Sixteen patients (19,3%) had normal BMI, 30 patients (36,1%) were overweight, 26 (30,2%) were obese and 12 (14,4%) were morbidly obese. 36,9% of patients were admitted to the hospital during the morning shift, 41,7% during the evening shift and 21,4% during the night shift. Most of the patients (n=61) were admitted on weekdays and less (n=23) on weekends. We have observed increased rates of survival after cardiac arrest among obese patients compared to patients with normal BMI. Particularly, 16% of patients with BMI>25 were alive on admission to the ICU, while only 12.5% of patients with BMI<25 were alive on admission. Survival rates at discharge were 6,2% for BMI<25 patients and 7,3% for BMI>25 patients. Although, this difference was not statistically significant, it still remains a paradox and further larger studies are needed to clarify these findings.
