Sudden cardiac death (SCD) accounts for up to 450,000 deaths every year in the United States (Zipes et al. (2006)). Most cases of sudden cardiac death occur in subjects with no prior history of heart disease (Myerburg et al. (1998)). The incidence of sudden death in a general population has been shown to increase contemporaneously with substance abuse (Phillips et al. (1999)). The causative association of sudden death with cocaine, methadone, and volatile agents is well established (Adgey et al. (1995) and Isner et al. (1986)). We describe a case of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest temporally related to abuse of the synthetic cannabinoid street drug known as K2. To our knowledge, there are no previously documented cases of sudden cardiac death associated with synthetic cannabinoids although they have been linked to myocardial infarction in teenagers despite normal coronary angiography (Mir et al. (2011)).

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Background Prompt recognition of underlying cardiovascular implantable electronic device (CIED) infection in patients presenting with S. aureus bacteremia (SAB) is critical for optimal management of these cases. The goal of this study was to identify clinical predictors of CIED infection in patients presenting with SAB and no signs of pocket infection. Methods and Results All cases of SAB in CIED recipients at Mayo Clinic from 2001 to 2011 were retrospectively reviewed. We identified 131 patients with CIED who presented with SAB and had no clinical signs of device pocket infection. Forty-five (34%) of these patients had underlying CIED infection based on clinical and/or echocardiographic criteria. The presence of a permanent pacemaker rather than an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (OR 3.90, 95% CI 1.65–9.23), P=0.002), >1 device-related procedure (OR 3.30, 95% CI 1.23–8.86, P=0.018), and duration of SAB ≥4 days (OR 5.54, 95% CI 3.32–13.23, P<0.001) were independently associated with an increased risk of CIED infection in a multivariable model. The area under the receiver operating characteristics curve (AUC) for the multivariable model was 0.79, indicating a good discriminatory capacity to distinguish SAB patients with and without CIED infection. Conclusions Among patients presenting with SAB and no signs of pocket infection, the risk of underlying CIED infection can be calculated based on the type of device, number of device-related procedures, and duration of SAB. We propose that patients without any of these high-risk features have a very low risk of underlying CIED infection and may be monitored closely without immediate device extraction. Prospective studies are needed to validate this risk prediction model.