Last Updated: 2003-08-29 12:02:43 -0400 (Reuters Health)

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - People who are resuscitated after a cardiac arrest nowadays do much better over the long term than they would have done 25 years ago.

That good news comes from a Seattle-based team that analyzed data on some 2,000 such patients who survived and were sent home from hospitals in King County, Washington, between 1976 and 2001.

The researchers divided the 25-year study period into five 5-year intervals. Compared with the initial time period, the total number of deaths decreased, on average, by 13 percent for each successive time period. The drop in deaths caused by heart disease in each period was 21 percent, according to a report in the American Heart Association's journal, Circulation.

"The results indicate that in more recent years, persons who are successfully resuscitated are, on average, more likely to have a better long-term prognosis than persons successfully resuscitated in the 1970's and 1980's," Dr. Thomas D. Rea of the University of Washington told Reuters Health.

The improved survival over time was seen in both men and women, and in older and younger people.

The reason for the improvements are likely to be many, Rea said, including healthier lifestyles, advances in drug treatment for heart problems, as well as the development of implantable automatic devices to shock the heart if it stops beating properly.