Clinical Research Directory

A Randomized Controlled Study of the NEURESCUE Device as an Adjunct to Advanced Cardiac Life Support

The NEURESCUE device is the first intelligent balloon catheter for aortic balloon occlusion (ABO), an emergency technique that supercharges blood flow to the heart and brain within one minute from deployment. The catheter-based device is delivered via the femoral artery, temporarily inflating a soft balloon in the descending to redirect blood flow towards the upper body. The purpose of this study is to compare the clinical safety and performance of Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS) versus ACLS in combination with Aortic Balloon Occlusion (ABO) using the NEURESCUE device in subjects with cardiac arrest.

Relevance of Reversible Causes During OHCA (Rebecca Study)

Management of the reversible causes in cardiac arrest is fundamental for successful treatment of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests. Point-of-care diagnostics as prehospital emergency ultrasound, blood gas analysis and toxicological screening support the diagnostic process of evaluating potential reversible causes. Digital tools provide support of a structured approach. This study aims to evaluate the frequency of reversible causes during OHCA as well as specific interventions due to these findings. Furthermore, CPR performance (hands-off, ROSC, 30-day mortality) and cognitive load of the prehospital emergency physician will be investigated. In total 100 patients with OHCA will be included in this study. Identification of reversible causes will be performed upon a structured protocol using an interactive checklist. Cognitive load of emergency physician as well as CPR parameter (frequency of reversible causes, hands-off, ROSC, 30-day mortality) will be analysed.

Quality of Pediatric Resuscitation in a Multicenter Collaborative

This is a prospective, observational, multi-center cohort study of pediatric cardiac arrests. The purpose of the study is to determine the association between chest compression mechanics (rate, depth, flow fraction, compression release) and patient outcomes. In addition, the investigators will determine the association of post cardiac arrest care with patient outcomes.

Impact of a mHealth Supportive Tool on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation' Situational Awareness

This study will be a prospective, single-center, randomized controlled trial in a tertiary pediatric emergency department with two parallel groups of voluntary pediatric physicians and nurses. The impact of a mHealth supportive tool will be compared with conventional communication methods on situational awareness, leadership, team communication effectiveness and performance during standardized, simulation-based, pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest scenario using a high-fidelity manikin. Thirty-six participants will be randomized (1:1). The primary endpoint is the situational awareness score measured with the situation awareness global assessment technique (SAGAT) instrument.

Simulation Trial of Telemedical Support for Paramedics

In the United States, the current standard of prehospital (i.e. outside of hospitals) emergency care for children with life-threatening illnesses in the community includes remote physician support for paramedics providing life-saving therapy while transporting the child to the hospital. Most prehospital emergency medical services (EMS) agencies use radio-based (audio only) communication between paramedics and physicians to augment this care. However, this communication strategy is inherently limited as the remote physician cannot visualize the patient for accurate assessment and to direct treatment. The purpose of this pilot randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to evaluate whether use of a 2-way audiovisual connection with a pediatric emergency medicine expert (intervention = "telemedical support") will improve the quality of care provided by paramedics to infant simulator mannequins with life threatening illness (respiratory failure). Paramedics receiving real-time telemedical support by a pediatric expert may provide better care due to decreased cognitive burden, critical action checking, protocol verification, and error correction. Because real pediatric life-threatening illnesses are rare, high stakes events and involve a vulnerable population (children), this RCT will test the effect of the intervention on paramedic performance in simulated cases of pediatric medical emergencies. The two specific aims for this research are: * Aim 1: To test the intervention efficacy by determining if there is a measurable difference in the frequency of serious safety events between study groups * Aim 2: To compare two safety event detection methods, medical record review, and video review

Evaluation of the InterFACE-AR System for Cardiopulmonary Arrest

Cognitive aids are decision support tools that present prompts to encourage recall of information, thus freeing up mental resources to increase the likelihood of desired behaviors. Cognitive aids have been trialed in different forms for use during resuscitation, including pocket reference cards and digital apps. Simulation-based studies of cognitive aid used during cardiac arrest events have shown improved adherence to guidelines, improved time to completing critical tasks, and reduced rate of critical errors. Unfortunately, existing pocket reference cards and mobile apps have significant flaws - they all require providers to search through content to identify relevant information. In the proposed study, the investigators will evaluate the impact of an enhanced system, InterFACE-AR, which provides role-specific decision support to the team leader and medication nurse through AR devices, while concurrently optimizing team situational awareness by displaying a roadmap for patient care on the LCD screen. Clinical data will be collected from the mobile app on a tablet used by the charting nurse. The trial aims to assess the individual and combined effectiveness of InterFACE-AR components (i.e. AR devices and LCD screen) on adherence to AHA resuscitation guidelines during simulated cardiac arrest by conducting a randomized controlled trial with a factorial design.

REBOA in Nontraumatic OHCA

The investigators propose a multicenter randomized controlled trial in South Korea and Taiwan to observe the clinical effects of REBOA on nontraumatic out-of-hospital-cardiac-arrest (OHCA) patients. While REBOA has been traditionally used in trauma for hemorrhage control, it has also shown promising results in nontraumatic cardiac arrests by rerouting circulation to increase perfusion in the coronary and brain.

Optimized CT-imaging Protocol in VA-ECMO Patients After CPR

Veno-arterial (VA) extracorporal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is an increasingly applied method in patients under cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), who are regularly examined with a contrast-enhanced computed tomography to search for the underlying pathology as well as complications from the implantation of the ECMO system or CPR. The extraordinary hemodynamic situation due to VA-cannulation with antegrade and retrograde perfusion is a challenge to the diagnostically required simultaneous opacification of pulmonary and systemic arterial vessels. Evidence regarding the effect of ECMO flow rate, cannula position, cardiac function and contrast agent injection site is scarce and to the best of the authors' knowledge, no standardized scan protocol for this patient collective exists. In this study, all adult emergency department patients at our institution with femoro-femoral VA-ECMO and ongoing or recent cardiopulmonary resuscitation, who are referred to a clinically indicated CT scan in this context, will be included, aiming for a total of n=50 patients. The first 25 consecutive patients will be assigned to the intervention cohort. For these patients the ECMO flow rate is reduced by a maximum of 50% of initial flow, but to no less than 1,5 liter/min, for the duration of the CT scan (max. 1-2 minutes), given the hemodynamic and respiratory situation allows it. The following 25 consecutive patients will be assigned to the control cohort for whom ECMO flow rate is not reduced. Clinical data (e.g. ECMO flow rate, ventilation parameters, cardiac function, venous line for contrast injection) at the time of imaging will be documented via a standardized data sheet. The applied CT protocol routinely comprises a non-contrast-enhanced cranial CT (CCT), CT angiography (CTA) of the aorta as well as a portal-venous phase of the chest and abdomen. Complementary scans will be performed as clinically indicated. The aim of this single-center prospective cohort study is to evaluate the performance of an optimized CT protocol for this patient cohort and whether a reduction of ECMO flow rate improves contrast enhancement of critically relevant vessels in these CT examinations in comparison to a non-reduction cohort.

An Educational Program to Improve Cardiac Arrest Diagnostic Accuracy of Ambulance Telecommunicators

Cardiac arrest is the number one cause of death in Canada. It is often the first symptom of cardiac disease for the victims. Eighty-five percent of victims collapse in their own home. Fifty percent collapse in the presence of a family member. Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can improve the chance to survive a cardiac arrest by three to four times, but needs to be started quickly. In most communities, less than 30% of victims receive CPR before the ambulance arrives. Currently, only 8% of cardiac arrest victims can leave the hospital alive. Many things have been tried to improve the number of times people do CPR. So far, the only thing that really increased the number of times that someone did CPR is when 9-1-1 attendants started to give CPR instructions to callers over the phone. The only problem is that about 25% of cardiac arrest victims gasp for air in the first few minutes. This can fool the 9-1-1 callers and attendants into thinking that the victim is still alive. The investigators have looked at all the studies on how to help 9-1-1 attendants to recognize abnormal breathing over the phone. The investigators have also learned what should be taught after finishing a large survey with 9-1-1 attendants from across Canada. This survey was done with the help of psychologists and other education experts. It measured the impact of attitudes, social pressures, and 9-1-1 attendants' perceived control over their ability to recognize abnormal breathing and cardiac arrest. Then the investigators developed a teaching tool which helped Ottawa 9-1-1 attendants recognize abnormal breathing. When they could do that, they could also recognize more cardiac arrest. The main goal of this project is to use the tool developed in Ottawa in more centres to help 9-1-1 attendants save the lives of even more cardiac arrest victims across Canada.

Synergy of Elevation of the Head and Thorax and REBOA During Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Long-term neurological outcome after successful resuscitation of cardiac arrest remains poor, mainly due to cerebral hypoperfusion and severe hypoxic-ischemic brain injuries. Automated head and chest elevation during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (AHUP-CPR) improves cerebral perfusion by decreasing the intracranial pressure and increasing cerebral perfusion in experimental pig studies. The addition of an impedance threshold device (ITD) and active chest compression-decompression device (ACD) improved hemodynamics and cerebral perfusion. In addition, early implementation of AHUP-CPR in patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) was associated with improved survival to hospital discharge, in a multicenter observational study. A 2-year prospective clinical trial in Grenoble evaluating this combination was just completed. This study showed for the first time that the value of end-tidal CO2 (EtCO2), a surrogate for cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) quality and cardiac output, measured with this combination therapy, was significantly higher than with standard CPR. Resuscitative endovascular balloon occlusion of the aorta (REBOA) has recently been proposed during CPR. This technique temporarily diverts blood flow to the coronary and cerebral circulation. Its beneficial effect on hemodynamics, cerebral blood flow and survival has been experimentally validated. In several feasibility studies, encouraging results were observed by slightly optimizing cerebral perfusion and coronary pressure when REBOA was used in combination with standard CPR. In a porcine model of cardiac arrest, the addition of REBOA to AHUP CPR was associated with a marked improvement in coronary perfusion pressure and near-normalization of cerebral perfusion pressure. These two interventions act synergistically. REBOA directs flow and pressure to the heart and brain, while AHUP CPR improves preload on the right side of the heart and reduces intracranial pressure. The aims of this clinical investigation are to assess the feasibility of placing a REBOA catheter combined with automated CPR with head and chest elevation, and to quantify the associated changes in clinical parameters for OHCA.

Effects of Corticosteroid Use on Restoration of Spontaneous Circulation in Cardiac Arrest Patients

We aim to investigate the effects of pre-arrest corticosteroid use for any reason on the time of return of spontaneous circulation in patients experiencing witnessed cardiac arrest, either in-hospital or out-of-hospital. Additionally, we plan to study the effects of corticosteroid use on post-ROSC administration of vasoactive agents, required dosage of vasoactive agents and number of vasoactive agents needed in order to reach targeted blood pressure levels.