The beneficial effect of basic life support on ventricular fibrillation mean frequency and coronary perfusion pressure.
OBJECTIVE
Chest compressions before initial defibrillation attempts have been shown to increase successful defibrillation. This animal study was designed to assess whether ventricular fibrillation mean frequency after 90 s of basic life support cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) may be used as an indicator of coronary perfusion and mean arterial pressure during CPR.


RESULTS
After 4 min of ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest in a porcine model, CPR was performed manually for 3 min. Mean ventricular fibrillation frequency and amplitude, together with coronary perfusion and mean arterial pressure were measured before initiation of chest compressions, and after 90 s and 3 min of basic life support CPR. Increases in fibrillation mean frequency correlated with increases in coronary perfusion and mean arterial pressure after both 90 s (R=0.77, P<0.0001, n=30; R=0.75, P<0.0001, n=30, respectively) and 3 min (R=0.61, P<0.001, n=30; R=0.78, P<0.0001, n=30, respectively) of basic life support CPR. Increases in fibrillation mean amplitude correlated with increases in mean arterial pressure after both 90 s (R=0.46, P<0.01; n=30) and 3 min (R=0.42, P<0.05, n=30) of CPR. Correlation between fibrillation mean amplitude and coronary perfusion pressure was not significant both at 90 s and 3 min of CPR.


CONCLUSIONS
In this porcine laboratory model, 90 s and 3 min of CPR improved ventricular fibrillation mean frequency, which correlated positively with coronary perfusion pressure, and mean arterial pressure.
Achleitner
U
U
Care and Emergency Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Leopold-Franzens-University, Anichstrasse 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
Wenzel
V
V
Strohmenger
H U
HU
Lindner
K H
KH
Baubin
M A
MA
Krismer
A C
AC
Mayr
V D
VD
Amann
A
A
D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation; D003326:Coronary Circulation; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D006339:Heart Rate; D016014:Linear Models; D013552:Swine; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy*