Age, sex, and survival following ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest: A mechanistic evaluation of the ECG waveform.

Background: Studies of outcome differences by sex in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) have produced mixed results that may depend on age, a potential surrogate for menopausal status.

Objective: We used quantitative measures of ventricular fibrillation (VF) waveforms - indicators of the myocardium's physiology - to assess whether survival differences according to sex and age group may be mediated via a biologic mechanism.

Methods: We conducted a cohort study of VF-OHCA in a metropolitan EMS system.

Analysis of Epinephrine Dose, Targeted Temperature Management, and Neurologic and Survival Outcomes Among Adults With Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Importance: Epinephrine improves return of spontaneous circulation after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). These beneficial cardiac effects do not directly translate to better neurologic outcomes, possibly because of epinephrine-induced microvascular effects that produce critical brain ischemia.

Objective: To examine whether targeted temperature management (TTM) modifies the adverse association between increasing prehospital epinephrine dose and neurologically favorable survival.