Sudden Cardiac Death at Home: Potential Lives Saved With Fully Automated External Defibrillators.

Sudden cardiac death from ventricular arrhythmia kills about 350,000 people annually in the United States. This number has not improved since the widespread public availability of semi-automated external defibrillators (AEDs) and the teaching of nonbreathing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) procedures. When an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occurs in a public space, lay witnesses do CPR in 40% of the cases and use AEDs on only 7.

Left ventricular endocardial pacing: a transarterial approach.

Introduction: We tested the feasibility of a new technique of direct left ventricular endocardial lead placement across the aortic valve in a chronic (six month) pig model. The potential for aortic valve damage, systemic embolization, and pacing lead maturation and function within the left ventricle are unknown.

Methods: Ten minipigs were successfully implanted with a transaortic left ventricular lead (Medtronic CapSureFix, Minneapolis, MN, USA) placed in the left ventricular apex via the carotid artery.

Immediate and 1-year survival of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims in southern New Jersey: 1995-2000.

Most studies report the out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival to hospital discharge. One-year survival and neurological outcomes in southern New Jersey in 1996-2000 were analyzed using a retrospective data review. There were 1,597 cases of OHCA.

Comparison of clinical and genetic variables of cardiac events associated with loud noise versus swimming among subjects with the long QT syndrome.

Acute auditory stimuli and swimming activities are frequently associated with syncope, aborted cardiac arrest, and death in the long QT syndrome (LQTS). We investigated the clinical and genetic findings associated with cardiac events precipitated by these arousal factors. The study population involved 195 patients with an index cardiac event associated with a loud noise (n = 77) or swimming activity (n = 118).