Ventricular Fibrillation and Electrocardiographic Rhythm vs Echocardiographic Rhythm During Cardiac Arrest

This is a multi-center, prospective, observational trial involving sites across the United States and Canada. Patients will be enrolled through the emergency department either presenting in cardiac arrest, or going into cardiac arrest while in the emergency department after having arrested out of hospital. Advanced Cardiac Life Support (ACLS) protocols and institutional policies for resuscitation will be followed, as is the current standard of care. A patient encounter will conclude upon halting of cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Patient outcome will be evaluated by chart review or follow-up.

Programs involved in this study must have already integrated echocardiography into Cardiac Arrest clinically and have established procedures for how imaging is performed in the context of CPR. Echocardiography will not hinder or impair resuscitative efforts in any way, including halting CPR or prolonging pauses in CPR. Sonographic images will be obtained during designated pauses in chest compressions, as is routine care, during CPR for pulse checks, rhythm checks, and necessary resuscitative procedures.

Echocardiography will be performed as appropriate to obtain diagnostic information for each particular patient during resuscitative efforts. Recording of the image loops will be performed during image acquisition according to standard technology availability and clinical protocols at each site. To facilitate image acquisition, the ultrasound probe may be placed in the epigastrium or parasternal region during CPR with the heart centered in the field of view, if it will not interfere with ongoing resuscitation. Recording of the images can begin immediately upon pauses of CPR using whatever means are available at the site. Sonographic images will be obtained by competent personnel with experience in bedside cardiac ultrasound. This information will be made available to the physician taking care of the patient.

Continuous ECG tracings are displayed during cardiac arrest, and for the purpose of this study recordings of these ECG tracings will need to be digitally recorded. These digital ECG 'rhythm strips" will be matched with contemporaneous recordings of the ultrasound images of the heart.

Subject data, with identifiers removed, will be uploaded into the REDcap web-based database. Data will be obtained from initial patient encounter, patient records, and EMS records when available.