A New Era in Noninvasive Prenatal Testing REPLY

On March 11, 2011, a magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck the northeast region of Japan. During the first 4 weeks after the earthquake, the numbers of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests were significantly increased as compared with the numbers during the same weeks from 2005 to 2010.To the Editor: The most powerful earthquake ever recorded in Japan, with a magnitude of 9.0 on the Richter scale, struck the northeast region of Japan on March 11, 2011 (Figure 1A).(1),(2) Earthquakes are known to increase the risk of sudden cardiac arrest.(3) Using a nationwide population-based database, we assessed the association between this earthquake and the occurrence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of presumed cardiac origin.(4),(5) Our study involved adult patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of presumed cardiac origin who were transported to medical institutions in Iwate, Miyagi, and Fukushima the three prefectures that were most damaged ...