Ravindran R, Kwok CS, Wong CW, et al. - Assessing data from the Nationwide Emergency Department Sample, researchers here analyzed the causes of cardiac arrests (CA) in the emergency departments (ED) in the United States. Further, they examined their clinical outcomes according to whether they had a primary or a secondary diagnosis of CA. Among 2,852,347 identified ED episodes with a diagnosis of CA (50.5% primary diagnosis, 49.5% secondary diagnosis), survival was reported for < 30% and was greater among patients with a secondary diagnosis of CA. Nearly 33% patients had a primary cardiac diagnosis, followed by infectious and respiratory diagnoses in the patient population with a secondary diagnosis of CA. Findings overall suggest correlation of CAs with significant mortality in ED and hospital settings and highlight the necessity for measures to better manage cardiac, infection and respiratory causes particularly in the winter months.