Resuscitation
-
In out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) due to ventricular fibrillation (VF), VF may recur during resuscitation (recurrent VF) or fail to defibrillate (shock-resistant VF). While retrospective studies have suggested that amplitude spectral area (AMSA) and slope predict defibrillation, it is unknown whether the predictive power is influenced by VF type. We hypothesized that in witnessed OHCA with initial rhythm of VF that the utility for AMSA and slope to predict defibrillation would differ between shock-resistant and recurrent VF. ⋯ In witnessed OHCA with VF as initial rhythm, recurrent VF is associated with higher values of AMSA and slope and is likely to re-defibrillate. However, when VF is shock-resistant, AMSA and slope are highly predictive of defibrillation.