Cardiologists' knowledge of the 2005 American Heart Association Resuscitation Guidelines: The Athens Study.

Objective: The study objective was to determine cardiologists' theoretic knowledge of the 2005 American Heart Association (AHA) resuscitation guidelines.

Methods: The questionnaire consisted of demographic questions, resuscitation experience questions, a question regarding confidence in resuscitation skills, and 20 theoretic knowledge questions.

Results: For the theoretic knowledge questions, the participants' overall mean score was 9.9 ± 4.6 (range 3-20). Participants who had received advanced cardiac life support (ACLS) training scored significantly higher. Furthermore, those who had attended the ACLS course in the preceding year scored significantly higher compared with those who had attended the ACLS course more than 1 year before the survey (19.1 ± .6 vs 16.7 ± .67, P = .001). Theoretic knowledge of resuscitation did not increase with seniority. Furthermore, no correlation was observed between the theoretic knowledge scores and participants' self-appraisal of resuscitation knowledge.

Conclusion: Cardiologists have knowledge gaps in the 2005 AHA resuscitation guidelines. Resuscitation knowledge decay 1 year after the course is evident.