Pulseless electrical activity

Arteriovenous fistulas can lead to a number of different chronic complications. We describe a case where a patient developed a thrombosis within her brachiobasilic arteriovenous fistula, which was manually manipulated in order to restore fistula flow. This resulted in a pulseless electrical activity cardiac arrest within a few minutes. After ten minutes of chest compressions and intubation, there was return of spontaneous circulation. No epinephrine was given nor shocks administered. Patient was extubated within minutes and was alert, orientated and haemodynamically stable...

A 69 year old male, an ex-smoker, was admitted with ongoing chest pain of 11 hours duration. Past medical history included treated hypertension and gastro-oesophageal reflux disease. He delayed seeking medical attention as he assumed the pain to be due to indigestion and kept taking antacids without much symptomatic relief. Clinical examination on arrival was unremarkable. Admission 12 lead electrocardiogram (ECG) was diagnostic of a recent anterolateral myocardial infarction (MI) (Figure 1a). Bedside trans-thoracic echocardiogram (TTE) confirmed an established anterolateral MI (Video 1, Figure 1b)...

AIM: To detect and quantify gasping during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients and to investigate whether gasping is associated with increased return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). MATERIALS AND METHODS: A prospective observational study in patients resuscitated and mechanically or manually ventilated for OHCA by emergency physicians of Ghent University Hospital. After intubation, pressure catheters were inserted in the endotracheal tube (ETT) and pressures were measured at the proximal and distal ends of the ETT...

Fetuses with anti-SSA-mediated complete atrioventricular block (CAVB) are at high risk for perinatal death if they present at <20 weeks of gestation and develop ventricular rates of <55 beats per minute (bpm), cardiac dysfunction, or hydrops [Izmirly et al.: Circulation 2011;124:1927-1935; Jaeggi et al.: J Am Coll Cardiol 2002;39:130-137; Eliasson et al.: Circulation 2011;124:1919-1926]. After our experience with two such fetuses who died with pulseless electrical activity despite being paced within 30 min of birth, we performed an ex utero intrapartum treatment procedure to ventricular pacing on a 36-week CAVB fetus with cardiac dysfunction, mild hydrops, and a ventricular rate of 46 bpm...

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OBJECTIVE: To assess the evidence and make evidence-based recommendations for acute interventions to reduce brain injury in adult patients who are comatose after successful cardiopulmonary resuscitation. METHODS: Published literature from 1966 to August 29, 2016, was reviewed with evidence-based classification of relevant articles. RESULTS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: For patients who are comatose in whom the initial cardiac rhythm is either pulseless ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), therapeutic hypothermia (TH; 32-34°C for 24 hours) is highly likely to be effective in improving functional neurologic outcome and survival compared with non-TH and should be offered (Level A)...

OBJECTIVES: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) remains a major public health burden. Aggregate OHCA survival to hospital discharge has reportedly remained unchanged at 7.6% for almost 30 years from 1970 to 2008. We examined the trends in adult OHCA survival over a 16-year period from 1998 to 2013 within a single EMS agency. METHODS: Observational cohort study of adult OHCA patients treated by Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue (TVF&R) from 1998 to 2013. This is an ALS first response fire agency that maintains an active Utstein style cardiac arrest registry and serves a population of approximately 450,000 in 9 incorporated cities in Oregon...

No abstract text is available yet for this article.

Recent electrophysiological studies have suggested surges in electrical correlates of consciousness (i.e., elevated gamma power and connectivity) after cardiac arrest (CA). This study examines electrocorticogram (ECoG) activity and coherence of the dying brain during asphyxial CA. Male Wistar rats (n = 16) were induced with isoflurane anesthesia, which was washed out before asphyxial CA. Mean phase coherence and ECoG power were compared during different stages of the asphyxial period to assess potential neural correlates of consciousness...

BACKGROUND: Therapeutic hypothermia (TH) improves survival and neurologic function in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest. Many medications used to support TH have altered pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics during this treatment. It is unknown if or at what frequency the medications used during TH cause adverse drug reactions (ADRs). METHODS: A retrospective chart review was conducted for patients admitted to an intensive care unit (ICU) after cardiac arrest and treated with TH from January 2009 to June 2012 at two urban, university-affiliated, tertiary-care medical centres...

There is a need to monitor the heart rhythm in resuscitation to improve treatment quality. Resuscitation rhythms are categorized into: ventricular tachycardia (VT), ventricular fibrillation (VF), pulseless electrical activity (PEA), asystole (AS), and pulse-generating rhythm (PR). Manual annotation of rhythms is time-consuming and infeasible for large datasets. Our objective was to develop ECG-based algorithms for the retrospective and automatic classification of resuscitation cardiac rhythms. METHODS: The dataset consisted of 1631 3- second ECG segments with clinical rhythm annotations, obtained from 298 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients...

BACKGROUND: Wide variation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival has been reported, with low survival in urban settings. We sought to describe the epidemiology of OHCA in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the fifth largest U.S. city, and identify potential areas for targeted interventions to improve survival. METHODS AND RESULTS: Retrospective chart review of adult, non-traumatic, OHCA occurring in Philadelphia between 2008 and 2012. We determined incidence and epidemiological factors including: demographics, initial cardiac rhythm, bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, automated external defibrillator use, return of spontaneous circulation and 30-day survival...

Cardiogenic shock in the context of acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) remains a challenge to manage and results in significant mortality and morbidity, cardiac arrest in this setting even more so. The increase in myocardial oxygen demand and consumption with the use of inotropes is recognised as increasing mortality. Alternatives include the intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP), which has yet to be shown to improve outcomes, and extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO), which requires super-specialised techniques not widely available...

OBJECTIVE: We evaluated the association between prehospital epinephrine administration by emergency medical services (EMS) and the long-term outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) with initial pulseless electrical activity (PEA) or asystole. METHODS: We conducted a controlled, propensity-matched, retrospective cohort study by using Japan's nationwide OHCA registry database. We studied 110,239 bystander-witnessed OHCA patients aged 15-94 years with initial non-shockable rhythms registered between January 2008 and December 2012...

BACKGROUND & OBJECTIVES: Sudden cardiac arrest (CA) represents one of the greatest challenges for medicine due to the vast number of cases and its social and economic impact. Despite advances in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) techniques, mortality rates have not significantly decreased over decades. This study was undertaken to characterize patients that have suffered CA and to identify factors related to mortality. METHODS: This prospective study was conducted at Emergency Department of São Paulo Hospital, Brazil...

Amitriptyline and propranolol are life threatening in overdose. The efficacy of intravenous lipid emulsion (ILE) in tricyclic antidepressant and propranolol overdose is unclear. We report a dramatic response to ILE following pulseless electrical activity arrest due to mixed amitriptyline and propranolol overdose.

A 72-year-old male reported a long-standing history of unexplained syncope. Stress echocardiography demonstrated inducible anterior hypokinesis, and he proceeded to percutaneous coronary intervention for an 80% stenosis of the left anterior descending artery. Thirty minutes post-procedure, he experienced a pulseless electrical activity (PEA) cardiac arrest. Urgent repeat angiography demonstrated profound coronary artery spasm consistent with Kounis syndrome. Three days later, a second PEA arrest occurred. Systemic mastocytosis was ultimately diagnosed as the cause of his recurrent syncopal episodes and cardiac arrests...

DESIGN: Case report. SETTING: Operating room. PATIENT: 25YF, ASA IV E who underwent an emergent decompressive craniectomy for refractory intracranial hypertension secondary to acute intracranial hemorhage. INTERVENTIONS: A 25Y caucasian female presented with acute intracranial hemorrhage with intraventricular extension secondary to Moya Moya disease. Post admisison, she underwent an emergent decompressive craniectomy for medically refractory intracranial hypertension...

PURPOSE: Few outcome data are available about temperature management after intraoperative cardiac arrest (IOCA). We describe targeted temperature management (TTM) (32-34 °C) modalities, adverse events, and association with 1-year functional outcome in patients with IOCA. METHODS: Patients admitted to 11 ICUs after IOCA in 2008-2013 were studied retrospectively. The main outcome measure was 1-year functional outcome. RESULTS: Of the 101 patients [35 women and 66 men; median age, 62 years (interquartile range, 42-72)], 68 (67...

We report the case of a 79-year-old woman who presented to our hospital for elective removal of an infratentorial meningioma and suffered a periprocedural cardiac arrest. Shortly after uncomplicated induction of anesthesia prior to the surgery, the patient became hypotensive and bradycardic, culminating ultimately in a cardiac arrest with pulseless electrical activity. Return of spontaneous circulation occurred within 90 seconds of arrest, but the patient remained dependent on maximal doses of epinephrine and dopamine for hemodynamic support...