Active clinical trials for "Heart Arrest"

The purpose of this study is to look at two different treatments during a cardiac arrest that occurs outside of the hospital and whether either or both treatments will increase the number of people who live to hospital discharge. A cardiac arrest is when the heart stops pumping blood to the body.

Every year, efforts are made to resuscitate about 30,000 people when their hearts stop outside of the hospital environment ('out-of-hospital cardiac arrest'). Early damage to the brain due to 'oxygen starvation' (seemingly paradoxically) gets worse when blood flow is restored. Of the 6,350 survivors admitted to intensive care units, 46% die from brain damage, and half of those who survive suffer long-term brain damage. Apart from avoiding a high temperature, nothing has been found which can protect the brain or improve outcome. 'Ketones' are chemicals naturally produced in the body from fat during starvation. They act as an energy source, but also as regulators of metabolism, and appear to protect cells from damage when oxygen supplies are scarce, or when blood flow is restored. The investigators want to see whether a ketone drink will protect the brain after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The investigators will study 10 cardiac arrest patients, and participants will be given the ketone drink via a feeding tube (which is routinely passed into the stomach in such cases). The investigators shall check that the drink is absorbed, and measure the ketone levels in the blood. The investigators will also measure important aspects of blood chemistry (including pH and blood sugar) and collect data on brain (electrical recordings called 'EEG' and 'SSEP') and heart function (ultrasound scans or 'echocardiographs') - both of which it is hoped might improve - in order to demonstrate that this is possible if it is to be included in a subsequent large trial. The study will be scrutinised by world experts in the field, who have also helped design the study. If this pilot study is a success, the investigators will apply to a major grant body to fund an appropriately-powered randomised controlled trial to determine whether ketones improve neurological outcome and survival in these patients. Results will also allow similar studies to be planned in heart attack, stroke and traumatic brain injury.

Sudden cardiac arrest is a major public health problem worldwide and it is one of the leading causes of death in industrialized countries. Emergency Medical Services (EMS) dispatchers play an important role to recognize cardiac arrest and give help to the lay first responder via telephone CPR (T-CPR) which improves survival rates. The current technology allows the live video connection between the scene and the dispatcher which provides the opportunity for video-assisted CPR (V-CPR) via the bystander smartphone. Effectiveness of V-CPR has only been investigated to a limited extent. Comparing effectiveness of V-CPR (effectiveness of chest compression, time parameters eg. time to first chest compression) to T-CPR and non-instructed CPR can be useful to implement V-CPR technology.

In the course of prehospital respiratory and circulatory arrest, approximately 1000 persons are resuscitated by cardiopulmonary resuscitation in Upper Austria every year. Despite constant further development of methods, equipment and continuous training of the rescue and emergency medical teams working on site, the majority of patients who have to be resuscitated prehospital still die. However, even patients whose circulatory function can be restored during prehospital resuscitation (Return of Spontaneous Circulation, ROSC) require intensive medical care for days to weeks and often find it very difficult to return to a normal, independent life. The success of resuscitation measures depends on the quality of the resuscitation performed as well as on patient-specific factors. Evaluation scales such as the Cerebral Performance Category score (CPC) allow a posteriori assessment of resuscitation success. Nowadays, it is very difficult to estimate the outcome of resuscitation a priori. In many cases, it is not at all clear at the beginning of the treatment pathway whether the individual patient is expected to have an unfavorable prognosis in the context of respiratory arrest or whether a restitutio ad integrum is possible. Thus, the decision to continue or discontinue resuscitation can only be made on the basis of an individual physician's assessment. In addition to the primary concern of stopping resuscitation too early, there is also the risk that medical resources are used beyond the normal level after resuscitation without expecting a successful outcome. Estimating and categorizing the subsequent outcome is difficult and emotionally stressful for the treating team in the acute situation. Some factors that influence outcome are now known: As cerebral hypoperfusion increases, the probability of survival decreases sharply with each passing minute. In this context, potentially reversible causes have been identified in different works, allowing causal therapy to improve neurological outcome. In addition to the most important therapy bridging hypoperfusion, chest compression, with the aim of ensuring minimal perfusion of the brain, immediate defibrillation should be mentioned in particular, which now allows medical laypersons to use defibrillators as part of the Public Access Defibrillation Network. Despite all efforts, however, it is not yet possible to make reliable statements about the probable outcome of persons with respiratory and circulatory arrest with a high degree of certainty in a large number of cases at an early stage. Artificial intelligence refers to the ability of machines to perform cognitive tasks, such as recognizing objects in images and classifying them. For a long time, many processes were too complex to explore through sufficient computing power, storage capacity, and understanding. More recently, however, technological advances have brought machine learning (ML) and the constructs behind it, including those based on so-called neural networks (known since about 1950), back to the fore. Not only the development of theoretical models, but after extensive testing also devices applicable in daily routine operation are available. Modern machine learning methods are enabling a variety of new approaches to assessing operations, including modeling complex systems and finding relationships between models.

Pediatric cardiac arrest occurs most in the prehospital setting. Most of them are due to respiratory failure (e.g., trauma, drowning, respiratory distress), where hypoxia leads to cardiac arrest. Generally, emergency medical services (EMS) first use basic airway management techniques i.e., the use of a bag-valve-mask (BVM) device, to restore oxygenation in pediatric OHCA victims. However, these devices present many drawbacks and limitations. Intermediate airway management, i.e., the use of SGA devices, especially the i-gel® has several advantages. It has been shown to enhance both circulatory and ventilatory parameters. There is increasing evidence that IAM devices can safely be used in children. In two pediatric studies of OHCA, American paramedics had significantly higher success rates with SGA devices than with TI. A neonatal animal model showed that the use of SGA was feasible and non-inferior to TI in this population. However, data regarding the effect of IAM with an i-gel® versus the use of a BVM on ventilation parameters during pediatric OHCA is missing. The hypothesis underlying this study is that, in case of pediatric OHCA, early insertion of an i-gel® device without prior BVM ventilation should improve ventilation parameters in comparison with the standard approach consisting in BVM ventilations.

The primary objective of the Neuroprotect trial is to assess whether or not a new goal directed hemodynamic optimization strategy can reduce cerebral ischemia in post-cardiac arrest (CA) patients.

Early stress-dose steroids are of uncertain efficacy in cardiac arrest. The current authors plan to conduct a pertinent mediation analysis using prospectively collected data from 2 prior randomized clinical trials of in-hospital cardiac arrest. These trials reported positive results on the vasopressin-steroids-epinephrine (VSE) combination. The current analysis is aimed at identifying mediators of the benefit associated with VSE, potentially attributable to its stress-dose steroid subcomponent. Tested mediators will include arterial pressure in the early postresuscitation period (primary), and arterial blood lactate in the early postresuscitation period and renal failure free days (secondary).

The main objective of the trial is to find out if 4-hour continuous infusion of parenteral P2Y12 inhibitor cangrelor at the start of primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) immediately and effectively suppresses platelet activity in comatose survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Half of the participants will receive the standard care of dual antiplatelet therapy - acetysalicylic acid and ticagrelor tablets via nasogastric or orogastric tube and the other half the standard care with additional cangrelor infusion at the start of the PCI.

The investigator's research proposal is a randomized controlled study evaluating two different monitoring strategies to titrate FiO2 in order to rapidly and safely achieve optimal SatO2 targets during early ROSC of non-traumatic OHCA in adults. Primary hypothesis: Monitoring transport to hospital of sustained ROSC of OHCA patients using multiple wavelength detectors that allow ORI continuous measurement will reduce hyperoxia and hypoxia burden associated with transport. Secondary hypothesis: Multiple wavelength detectors allowing ORI continuous measurement will reduce hyperoxia at ER admission as measured via blood gas analysis. Tertiary study hypothesis: Multiple wavelength detectors allowing ORI continuous measurement will reduce reperfusion neuronal injury measured through NSE levels at 48h post ROSC

The safety and efficacy of a laryngoscopy as a primary intubation tool in urgent endotracheal intubation of cardiac arrest patients with suspected/confirmed COVID-19 has not been well-described in the literature. This study will answer whether using a Vie Scope laryngoscope will impact on the efficacy and safety of intubation compared with a traditional direct laryngoscopy.