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NHLBI Stops Enrollment in Study on Resuscitation Methods for Cardiac Arrest
Brief Description:
Enrollment has ended early in a large, multicenter clinical trial comparing two distinct resuscitation strategies delivered by emergency medical service (EMS) providers to increase blood flow during cardiac arrest.
Transcript:
Balintfy: Only eight percent of the patients who collapse from cardiac arrest or sudden cardiac death outside a hospital survive.
Dr. Sopko: That's a deadly disease.
Balintfy: Dr. George Sopko at the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute’s Division of Cardiovascular Sciences explains that a large research network studied two resuscitation strategies, both involved cardiopulmonary resuscitation – or CPR – an emergency procedure that uses chest compressions to keep blood circulating.
Dr. Sopko: One strategy was, if we would use a special device, which is a mouth piece, which kind of entraps air in the lungs.
Balintfy: The other strategy compared two currently used timing approaches of assessing the heart's rhythm in relation to when CPR is started by EMS providers. Dr. Sopko says there was an early versus delayed strategy for defibrillation — an electric shock to the heart to restore its normal rhythm.
Dr. Sopko: Early means that you would do a brief CPR and that would allow the paramedics to get the defibrillator ready and fire. Balintfy: Researchers compared patient survival rates after EMS providers performed at least 30 seconds or 3 minutes of CPR before assessing the need for defibrillation.
Dr. Sopko: Recent research data suggested that perhaps having about three minutes of CPR is very important sort of to optimize some of the circulatory conditions, and then defibrillate.
Balintfy: Researchers found that different CPR durations were equally successful, and the special device does not add benefit. Dr. Sopko: We almost thought that we had the answer. And what we found out, that there was no difference. Now, that is surprising in a sense, but, that’s why we do research.
Balintfy: Dr. Sopko emphasizes the importance of this research saying that that before these study results, there was a consensus of experts and opinions.
Dr. Sopko: And we had data from very small studies, and that’s always challenging, because small studies, many times, sound very promising, but once you put it the real life, in the real scenario, things don’t necessarily do that, that’s why we do very rigorous research, like what was what we did with the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium.
Balintfy: The Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium is the largest clinical research network to study pre-hospital treatments for cardiac arrest in the United States and Canada. Data was reviewed on approximately 11,500 study participants. Dr. Sopko summarizes the key messages from these results.
Dr. Sopko: Number one, it is not necessarily the timing of a given strategy, it is the immediate application of CPR, a good CPR. That is absolutely critical. And I would encourage everybody to think about it very carefully, when you see that fellow citizen is down, do initiate CPR. Follow the appropriate rules that we check on the vital signs and everything else, and then if it’s appropriate, you do CPR, but do the CPR immediately, because the time is of essence. Every minute counts. Every minute, your survival goes down.
Balintfy: For more information on this study and cardiac arrest, visit www.nhlbi.nih.gov. This is Joe Balintfy, National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland.
About This Audio Report
Date: 1/13/2010
Reporter: Joe Balintfy
Sound Bite: Dr. George Sopko
Topic: cardiac arrest, sudden cardiac death, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR, defibrillation, defibrillator, heart
Institute(s):
NHLBI
Additional Info: NHLBI Stops Enrollment in Study on Resuscitation Methods for Cardiac Arrest
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