Active clinical trials for "Heart Arrest"

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) is a major cause of mortality in industrialized countries and represents a major health issue. The survival rate after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is only 10-15%, regardless of first recorded rhythm. Prior heart disease is a major risk factor for sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), and coronary artery disease (CAD) is the most common underlying cause. A better understanding of pathophysiological mechanisms occurring during cardiac arrest (CA), earlier diagnosis of underlying cause as well as identification of risk factors related to CA may improve patient treatment and increase survival. In our out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA)-study, we intend to investigate whether biomarkers, such as copeptin, hs-cTnT and NT-proBNP in addition to clinical evaluation may improve risk stratification and supply information related to pathophysiology. Furthermore, we intend to gather additional pathophysiological information related to coagulation activation in CA and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), as intravascular thrombosis may impair microcirculation and reduce end-organ blood flow which is associated with a poor prognosis. We intend to study coagulation activation during and immediately after SCA with regard to outcome, and assess the contribution of the intrinsic system, measured together with that of the extrinsic system. Low levels of n-3 fatty acids (FA) are reported as a risk factor for SCD. Red blood cell eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) + docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) may serve as a useful surrogate of cardiac omega-3 fatty acid status. The exact mechanism by which FAs might protect against serious cardiac arrhythmias is not known, but they are expected to exert a membrane stabilizing effect during an ischemic episode. In our study we intend to evaluate the association between ventricular fibrillation (VF) and the content of EPA and DHA in red blood cells. Furthermore, as vitamin D is associated with n-3 FAs in the diet, we also aim at investigating the association between 25-hydroxy (OH)-vitamin D and VF.

Survivors of a cardiac arrest frequently develop severe postanoxic encephalopathy. Derangements in cerebral blood after return of spontaneous circulation play an important role in the pathogenesis of postanoxic encephalopathy. In the present study we examine the effect of mild therapeutic hypothermia on cerebral blood flow and carbondioxide reactivity in patients after cardiac arrest.

The aim of the study is to determine prognostic value of plasma mitochondrial DNA and cytochrome C after cardiac arrest. The study will be conducted in three parts: Determine plasma concentrations of mitochondrial DNA and cytochrome C in healthy population. Determine release profile of mitochondrial DNA and cytochrome C to plasma after cardiac arrest. Determine plasma prognostic value of mitochondrial DNA and cytochrome C after cardiac arrest and compare it with established prognostic methods.

This is an observational study to define the role and future applications of cerebral oximetry in cardiac arrest patients.

A controlled clinical trial will be performed. School children from the age of 10 to 11 will be selected to learn basic life support (BLS) in a primary school of Zaragoza. One of the groups will learn BLS in two consecutive years and the other group will learn BLS only the first year. The investigators think that the knowledge will be better in the group that receives two interventions.

With the increase in life expectancy of the general population and advances in medicine, there is now a population with a higher amount of cardiovascular diseases that lead to an increased risk of sudden cardiac arrest. In most cases, this occurs in extra-hospital settings such as family homes, shopping centres, public transport and before people without any knowledge or training in basic life support. On the other hand, for every minute that passes without adequate attention of the victim, the probability of surviving or continuing to live with neurological severe sequelae decreases by 10%. In developed countries, public policies have been created to encourage basic life support education to the general population. In Colombia, because of the high prevalence of these diseases and the need for public health strategies, a law was issued to provide access to automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) in public places. However, it has not been developed strategies for education on this subject. For that reason, the investigators created an educational strategy of self-learning, which consists of a complete basic life support course based in new Information and Communication technologies with tools to manufacture a mannequin and a homemade DEA, which will allow continuous training, with a very low cost compared to traditional life support training. The clinical trial will compare that two educational strategies, evaluating as primary aid, which approach has higher knowledge retention of life support chain at 6 months in students after the workshop. As secondary objectives, the investigators would evaluate the efficient in terms of response times, costs and student satisfaction. This study will be carried out in high school students from two different high schools, without prior training in Life support. Both strategies will be distributed randomly. The experimental group will carry out the self-learning strategy based on ICT (Information and Communication Technologies), with which they will be retrained every month, and the control group will carry out the conventional training only once as usual. Subsequently, each of the objectives will be evaluated at six months. It is proposed that the self-learning strategy is superior compared to conventional training, requiring fewer resources to perform it and allows constant retraining, which improves retention and quality in a resuscitation process.

RIAC - An Observational, Prospective, Multi-centre, Study of Epidemiology, Treatment, and Outcome of Cardiac Arrest in Italy.

This study is designed as a multicenter, prospective, cohort clinical study. The out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients presenting to the adult emergency departments of the participating hospitals will render the study population. The non-traumatic, non-intracranial event related OHCA patients in whom the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is achieved will render the sampling group. The primary aim of this study is to evaluate the relationship of bedside ultrasound (USG) measurements of Optic Nerve Sheath Diameter (ONSD) following the ROSC after Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for OHCA patients, with early (3rd day) neurological evaluation and 30 days survival rate, proposing that increased ONSD may be related to negative neurological outcomes. Considering a relationship is found, the secondary goals of the study are established as, identifying a cut-off value for ONSD related to negative neurological outcome and the optimal time to measure ONSD. The sampling size with a power of 95% is calculated to be 203 patients. The patients whose available next of kin has given consent will be admitted to the study.

Out of hospital cardiac arrest is a major health problem. Prognosis is still poor even after return to spontaneous circulation. The pathophysiology of cardiac arrest implies ischemia-reperfusion and sepsis like syndrome. These phenomenons can lead to microvascular dysfunction explaining probably multi-organ failure after cardiac arrest. Few means allow the exploration of microvascular function in human. Muscle StO2 is a technique allowing the assessment of microvascular function non-invasively. The aim of this study is to evaluate muscle StO2 as a prognostic factor after out of hospital cardiac arrest.

It's so important to recognize ventricular fibrillation in cardiac arrest and defibrillation early. At the same time Research findings have identified high-quality CPR with minimum interruption is critical to the success of defibrillation therapy. Both the guidelines by American Heart Association and the guidelines by European Resuscitation Council emphasize the importance of minimizing interruptions in chest compressions, specifically, duration of the pre-shock and post-shock pauses. So AHA indicate that there will be a new algorithm of VF during chest compression, which has high sensitivity and specificity. And the investigators can identify VF and defibrillate earlier. The aim of this study is to verify that if Sherlock algorithm of Philips MRx monitor/defibrillator can identify shockable rhythms during chest compression accurately.