Feasibility of Doppler Ultrasound for Pulse Detection in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Patients

Medical University of Vienna

Status: Completed

Conditions: Cardiac Arrest, Out-Of-Hospital

Treatments: Other: Point-of-care vascular ultrasound

Study type: Observational

Funder types: Other

Identifiers

NCT06249893

1549/2023

Details and patient eligibility

About

The goal of this prospective observational study is to investigate the feasibility of using doppler point-of-care ultrasound on the femoral artery with a portable device to assess the presence of a pulse in patients suffering from cardiac arrest in the out-of-hospital environment. The main question is how often researchers are successful in acquiring the necessary ultrasound signal in the out-of-hospital environment.

Full description

In this prospective observational study, a dedicated research team will be dispatched to cardiac arrest patients treated in the prehospital environment by emergency medical services (EMS). The team will use a portable ultrasound device to identify the femoral artery and conduct a pulsed wave (PW) doppler measurement during chest compressions as well as during chest compression pauses for rhythm analysis and save the recorded images. These ultrasound pulse checks will be conducted in parallel with the normal treatment of the patient, including manual pulse checks, and will only be conducted if ultrasound is possible without interference in the resuscitation. All treatment decisions will rest with the treating EMS team.

Enrollment: 75 patients

Sex: All

Ages: 18+ years old

Volunteers: No Healthy Volunteers

Inclusion criteria

• Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated by EMS
• Minimum age of 18 years

Exclusion criteria

• Pregnancy or suspected pregnancy
• Disapproval of the treating EMS team
• Adults under legal guardianship
• Inability to perform femoral artery doppler ultrasound due to limited access to the patient and possible interference with the treating EMS team
• Inability to perform femoral artery doppler ultrasound due to injuries or anatomic abnormalities in the femoral region or necessary emergent medical interventions in the femoral region
• Decision to transfer the patient to the hospital with ongoing CPR for emergent procedures such as extracorporeal CPR before femoral artery doppler ultrasound could be attempted
• Inability to safely perform femoral artery doppler ultrasound due to environmental hazards

Trial design

75 participants in 1 patient group

Included patients

Treatment:

Other: Point-of-care vascular ultrasound