TY - JOUR
T1 - Young adults in the cardiac intensive care unit
T2 - insights from the Critical Care Cardiology Trials Network registry
AU - Isath, Ameesh
AU - Sharma, Tanya
AU - Mahmood, Uzair
AU - Smith, Damien
AU - Berg, David D.
AU - Bohula, Erin A.
AU - Chaudhry, Sunit Preet
AU - Daniels, Lori B.
AU - Ding, Xuan
AU - Fordyce, Christopher B.
AU - Gerber, Daniel
AU - Goldfarb, Michael
AU - Guo, Jianping
AU - Kontos, Michael C.
AU - Liu, Shuangbo
AU - Luk, Adriana
AU - Menon, Venu
AU - Patel, Siddharth M.
AU - Roswell, Robert O.
AU - Morrow, David A.
AU - Cooper, Howard A.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© The Author(s) 2025. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. For commercial re-use, please contact [email protected] for reprints and translation rights for reprints. All other permissions can be obtained through our RightsLink service via the Permissions link on the article page on our site—for further information please contact [email protected]. This article is published and distributed under the terms of the Oxford University Press, Standard Journals Publication Model (https://academic.oup.com/pages/standard-publication-reuse-rights)
PY - 2026/5
Y1 - 2026/5
N2 - Aims: While the aging cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) population has been well studied, young adults represent a distinct and underexplored subgroup. We aimed to characterize the demographics, clinical presentations, resource utilization, and outcomes of young adults admitted to contemporary CICUs. Methods and results: We analysed consecutive adult CICU admissions from 2018 to 2023 within the Critical Care Cardiology Trials Network, a multicentre registry of advanced CICUs in North America. Patients aged 18–39 years were classified as ‘young adults’ and compared with those aged ≥40 years. Among 29 035 CICU admissions, 6.7% (n = 1959) were aged 18–39 years. Young adults were more likely to be female (40.0% vs. 36.4%, P = 0.001) and non-White (55.3% vs. 43.0%, P < 0.001), with fewer traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Heart failure was the leading admission diagnosis among young adults (26.4% vs. 19.5%, P < 0.001). Compared with older adults, young patients were more likely to present with cardiogenic shock (22.4% vs. 18.7%, P < 0.001) and cardiac arrest (12.7% vs. 10.6%, P = 0.003). Utilization of critical care therapies was higher, including mechanical circulatory support (13.1% vs. 11.4%, P = 0.02), with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation comprising a greater share (29.3% vs. 9.9%, P < 0.001). Young admissions had longer CICU stays [2.7 (1.2–5.8) vs. 2.2 (1.1–4.6) days, P < 0.001]. CICU mortality (6.5% vs. 10.5%, P < 0.001) and hospital mortality (9.5% vs. 14.4%, P < 0.001) were significantly lower in the young. Conclusion: Young adults admitted to the CICU represent a clinically distinct population, with higher rates of high-acuity presentations and intensive resource use yet lower short-term mortality.
AB - Aims: While the aging cardiac intensive care unit (CICU) population has been well studied, young adults represent a distinct and underexplored subgroup. We aimed to characterize the demographics, clinical presentations, resource utilization, and outcomes of young adults admitted to contemporary CICUs. Methods and results: We analysed consecutive adult CICU admissions from 2018 to 2023 within the Critical Care Cardiology Trials Network, a multicentre registry of advanced CICUs in North America. Patients aged 18–39 years were classified as ‘young adults’ and compared with those aged ≥40 years. Among 29 035 CICU admissions, 6.7% (n = 1959) were aged 18–39 years. Young adults were more likely to be female (40.0% vs. 36.4%, P = 0.001) and non-White (55.3% vs. 43.0%, P < 0.001), with fewer traditional cardiovascular risk factors. Heart failure was the leading admission diagnosis among young adults (26.4% vs. 19.5%, P < 0.001). Compared with older adults, young patients were more likely to present with cardiogenic shock (22.4% vs. 18.7%, P < 0.001) and cardiac arrest (12.7% vs. 10.6%, P = 0.003). Utilization of critical care therapies was higher, including mechanical circulatory support (13.1% vs. 11.4%, P = 0.02), with extracorporeal membrane oxygenation comprising a greater share (29.3% vs. 9.9%, P < 0.001). Young admissions had longer CICU stays [2.7 (1.2–5.8) vs. 2.2 (1.1–4.6) days, P < 0.001]. CICU mortality (6.5% vs. 10.5%, P < 0.001) and hospital mortality (9.5% vs. 14.4%, P < 0.001) were significantly lower in the young. Conclusion: Young adults admitted to the CICU represent a clinically distinct population, with higher rates of high-acuity presentations and intensive resource use yet lower short-term mortality.
KW - CCCTN
KW - CICU
KW - Critical care cardiology
KW - Young adults
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105039327891
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105039327891#tab=citedBy
U2 - 10.1093/ehjacc/zuaf161
DO - 10.1093/ehjacc/zuaf161
M3 - Article
C2 - 41416463
AN - SCOPUS:105039327891
SN - 2048-8726
VL - 15
SP - 403
EP - 407
JO - European Heart Journal: Acute Cardiovascular Care
JF - European Heart Journal: Acute Cardiovascular Care
IS - 5
ER -