At the American Heart Association's scientific sessions, investigators announced the results of the second phase of studies on the quality of CPR delivered by professional responders in and out of the hospital. Two papers published in the January 19, 2005 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) reported poor adherence to international guidelines of CPR during both out-of-hospital and in-hospital cardiac arrest. The studies measured the level of accuracy of CPR delivery and discovered that, a high percentage of the time, chest compression rates were too slow, chest compression depth too shallow, and breath rates too high. The follow-up studies announced at AHA found that incorporating Q-CPR into their rescue protocol helped professional responders improve the quality of CPR they deliver.

Dr. Jo Kramer-Johansen of Ulleval University Hospital, Oslo, Norway, reported on 108 cardiac arrests in three ambulance services in Europe, where the automatic verbal and visual feedback features of Q-CPR improved the quality of CPR delivered by the paramedics and emergency medical technicians (EMTs). With the use of Q-CPR, the median percentage of chest compressions within CPR guidelines more than doubled from 24 to 53 percent. Additionally, there was a significant increase in the mean depth of compressions in those utilizing Q-CPR (34+9 mm to 38+6 mm), and a reduction in mean compression rate (121+18 to 109+12), which means that the performance was closer to current AHA guidelines for compression depth of 38 to 51mm and compression rate of 100 per minute.


"Improving CPR quality is the key factor for improving outcomes after cardiac arrest in the coming decade," said Professor Petter Steen, the principal investigator on the study. "While this investigation was not powered to study outcomes, the results strongly support the need for a larger study."

Dr. Ben Abella, from the University of Chicago, presented results showing that Q-CPR also improved multiple parameters of CPR quality for cardiac arrest patients treated in-hospital. A related study on how the quality of CPR affects the success rates of defibrillation, by his colleague Dr. Dana Edelson, reported that a modest increase in the depth of chest compressions doubled the chance of defibrillation success, which is associated with more patients leaving the hospital alive. Dr. Edelson's study garnered her the Resuscitation Science Symposium's (ReSS) Young Investigator of the Year award.

More Industry Headlines