Title: Lunar phases are not related to the occurrence of acute myocardial infarction and sudden cardiac death
Abstract: Background: Mass media deliver pertinacious rumours that lunar phases influence the progress and long-term results in several medical procedures. Peer reviewed studies support this, e.g. in myocardial infarction, others do not. Methods: We looked retrospectively at the dates of cardiac arrests (CA; n=368) of cardiac origin and of acute myocardial infarctions (AMI) with consecutive thrombolytic therapy or acute PTCA (n=872) and at the lunar phases at the corresponding dates. Medical data had been collected prospectively on the patient's admission. The lunar phases were defined as full moon±1 day, new moon±1 day and the days in between as waning and waxing moon. The incidence of these cardiac events at each phase was calculated as days with a case divided by the total number of days of the specific moon phase in the observation period (1992–1998). Wilcoxon Rank Test was used for statistical analysis. Results: AMI and CA occurred on equal percentages of days within each lunar phase: AMI on 35% of all days with new moon, on 38% of full moon days, on 39% waning, and on 41% of the waxing moon days; CA on 19, 17, 16 and 16% of all days of the respective lunar phase. This difference was not significant. Conclusion: Lunar phases do not appear to correlate with acute coronary events leading to myocardial infarction or sudden cardiac death.
Publication Year: 2003
Publication Date: 2003-02-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 36
AI Researcher Chatbot
Get quick answers to your questions about the article from our AI researcher chatbot