Publications by authors named "Ulrich Heister"

Background: Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the western world. Classic angina pectoris (AP) is a common reason to request prehospital emergency medical services (EMS). Nevertheless, data on diagnostic accuracy and common misdiagnoses are scarce.

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Objective: In cerebrovascular accidents symptoms, laboratory results and electrocardiogram (ECG) changes can mimic acute coronary syndrome (ACS) and is subsumed as neurogenic stunned myocardium. So far, data regarding the frequency of cerebrovascular accidents misdiagnosed for ACS in a prehospital setting are missing. This study aims to quantify misdiagnoses and discover discriminating features.

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The aim was to evaluate hospitalization rates for aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) within an interdisciplinary multicenter neurovascular network (NVN) during the shutdown for the COVID-19 pandemic along with its modifiable risk factors. In this multicenter study, admission rates for SAH were compared for the period of the shutdown for the COVID-19 pandemic in Germany (calendar weeks (cw) 12 to 16, 2020), the periods before (cw 6-11) and after the shutdown (cw 17-21 and 22-26, 2020), as well as with the corresponding cw in the years 2015-2019. Data on all-cause and pre-hospital mortality within the area of the NVN were retrieved from the Department of Health, and the responsible emergency medical services.

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Background: A decline in hospitalization for cardiovascular events and catheter laboratory activation was reported for the United States and Italy during the initial stage of the Covid-19 pandemic of 2020. We report on the deployment of emergency services for cardiovascular events in a defined region in western Germany during the government-imposed lock-down period.

Methods: We examined 5799 consecutive patients who were treated by emergency services for cardiovascular events during the Covid-19 pandemic (January 1 to April 30, 2020), and compared those to the corresponding time frame in 2019.

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Background: In Germany, emergency medical teams are staffed with physicians but evidence regarding their prehospital diagnostic accuracy remains poor.

Objective: To evaluate the out-of-hospital diagnostic accuracy of physician-staffed emergency medical teams (PEMTs).

Methods: A retrospective observational cohort study involving the Emergency Medical Service Bonn, Germany, from January to December 2004 and 2014 respectively.

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Background: Patient outcome after out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) depends on the cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performance and might also be influenced by organisation of the emergency medical service (EMS) and implementation of guidelines.

Aim: To assess the rate of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after cardiac arrest to the predicted rate by the ROSC after cardiac arrest (RACA) score over a 15-year period reflecting three different implemented ALS-guidelines in a physician-staffed EMS.

Methods: All adult patients with non-traumatic OHCA in the EMS of Bonn from 1996 to 2011 were included.

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Background: Despite recent advances in resuscitation algorithms, neurological injury after cardiac arrest due to cerebral ischemia and reperfusion is one of the reasons for poor neurological outcome. There is currently no adequate means of measuring cerebral perfusion during cardiac arrest. It was the aim of this study to investigate the feasibility of measuring near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) as a potential surrogate parameter for cerebral perfusion in patients with out-of-hospital resuscitations in a physician-staffed emergency medical service.

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Introduction: Sudden cardiac arrest is one of the most frequent causes of death in the world. In highly qualified emergency medical service (EMS) systems, including well trained emergency physicians, spontaneous circulation may be restored in up to 53% of patients at least until admission to hospital. Compared with these highly qualified EMS systems, in other systems markedly lower success rates are observed.

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The currently valid guidelines for resuscitation of the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) do not give any unambiguous recommendations for "transport with ongoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation". Furthermore, up to now there are no generally accepted criteria for terminating cardiopulmonary resuscitation, apart from certain signs of death. In spite of the generally poor outcome of patients being transported with ongoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, there are a number of positive case reports and undisputable indications (e.

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Objective: To evaluate the effectiveness, the safety, and the practicability of the new automated load-distributing band resuscitation device AutoPulse in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the midsized urban emergency service of Bonn city.

Study Design: Prospective, observational study.

Methods: Measurements of effectiveness were the proportion of patients with a return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and end-tidal carbon-dioxide (etCO(2)) values during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).

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Background And Purpose: In experimental studies infusion of hypertonic saline during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) increased resuscitation success rate and improved myocardial and cerebral reperfusion during CPR. We tested the feasibility and the safety of this new therapeutic measure in a randomised, preclinical pilot study.

Methods: The study was performed in the EMS system of Bonn after approval of the local ethical committee.

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