Resuscitation
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When ventricular fibrillation is cardioverted to pulseless electrical activity (PEA), PEA has been regarded as a non-resuscitatable rhythm. Yet, recent reports and our earlier observations suggested otherwise. We therefore investigated outcomes after postcountershock PEA, and aimed to develop a scoring system for outcome classification at the onset of initial postcountershock PEA. ⋯ Animals in which postcountershock PEA was converted to ROSC required shorter intervals from first shock to initial postcountershock PEA, fewer shocks prior to onset of initial postcountershock PEA, had greater VF wavelet amplitude prior to initial postcountershock PEA, small QRS intervals, and higher heart rates. Fisher's discriminant analysis is helpful in predicting the likelihood of ROSC for an individual animal presenting with postcountershock PEA.
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Not all hospitalised patients with symptoms of a presumed or threatened cardiac arrest, for whom the rescue team is alerted, eventually suffer a cardiac arrest. This article aims to describe the characteristics and outcome of "false cardiac arrests". ⋯ Among patients at a Swedish university hospital for whom the rescue team was alerted, about one-third have a "false cardiac arrest". These patients had a survival rate which was about twice that of patients with a "true cardiac arrest". However, among survivors, cerebral function at discharge was similar, regardless of "false" or "true" cardiac arrest.
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Clinical and experimental studies have shown that marked activation of blood coagulation occurs in cardiac arrest (CA) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Extracorporeal lung and heart assist (ECLHA) is applied in CA patients who cannot be rescued using conventional therapies. We hypothesized that the dose of heparin administered during the pre-arrest period would influence the outcome in a canine model of CA induced by 15 min of normothermia followed by ECLHA, which consists of heparin coating membrane lung and tubing. We therefore investigated the effects of two dose regimes of the pre-arrest heparin for this model. ⋯ The use of ECLHA to resuscitate animals in prolonged CA may require a large dose of systemic heparin during the pre-arrest period even if ECLHA circuit was coated with heparin.
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To investigate effectiveness of transoesophageal cardiac pacing in a rat model of asphyxial cardiac arrest. ⋯ Transoesophageal cardiac pacing is effective for CPR in a rat of asphyxial model. However, the precise mechanism is not clear and further experiments will be necessary.