The ventricular fibrillation waveform in relation to shock success in early vs. late phases of out-of-hospital resuscitation.

Background: The amplitude spectrum area (AMSA) of the ventricular fibrillation (VF) waveform predicts shock success and clinical outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Recently, also AMSA-changes demonstrated prognostic value. Until now, most studies focused on early shocks, while many patients require prolonged resuscitations.

Ventricular fibrillation waveform characteristics of the surface ECG: Impact of the left ventricular diameter and mass.

Background: Despite a promising association between VF waveform characteristics and prognosis after resuscitation, studies with VF-guided treatment have so far not improved outcomes. While driven by the idea that the VF waveform reflects arrest duration, increasing evidence suggests that pre-existent disease-related changes of the myocardium affect ECG-characteristics of VF as well. In this context, we studied the impact of the left ventricular (LV) diameter and mass.

Ventricular fibrillation waveform characteristics differ according to the presence of a previous myocardial infarction: A surface ECG study in ICD-patients.

Background: Characteristics of the ventricular fibrillation (VF) waveform reflect arrest duration and have been incorporated in studies on algorithms to guide resuscitative interventions. Findings in animals indicate that VF characteristics are also affected by the presence of a previous myocardial infarction (MI). As studies in humans are scarce, we assessed the impact of a previous MI on VF characteristics in ICD-patients.

A Cerebral Recovery Index (CRI) for early prognosis in patients after cardiac arrest.

Introduction: Electroencephalogram (EEG) monitoring in patients treated with therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac arrest may assist in early outcome prediction. Quantitative EEG (qEEG) analysis can reduce the time needed to review long-term EEG and makes the analysis more objective. In this study, we evaluated the predictive value of qEEG analysis for neurologic outcome in postanoxic patients.