Italian experience with automated external defibrillators (AED).

In order to achieve widespread use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in Italy, we evaluated several models of AEDs in different clinical and artificial settings. We enrolled 268 consecutive patients with various rhythms and arrhythmias. Among these, 129 patients were referred to two different hospitals and 139 were enrolled by the pre-hospital care providers. AED was applied in 209 patients without symptoms of cardiac arrest and in 59 patients with cardiac arrest. The AEDs exhibited a 100% specificity (no false positives in 220 patients with non-shockable rhythm). Sensitivity was 92.3% (4 false negatives and 48 true positives in patients with VT/FV). This study confirms the absolute clinical safety and the high level of diagnostic reliability offered by the AEDs that were tested.