title: The beneficial effect of basic life support on ventricular fibrillation mean frequency and coronary perfusion pressure.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Care and Emergency Medicine, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, The Leopold-Franzens-University, Anichstrasse 35, 6020 Innsbruck, Austria.
authors.forename: U
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Achleitner
authors.forename: V
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Wenzel
authors.forename: H U
authors.initials: HU
authors.lastname: Strohmenger
authors.forename: K H
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lindner
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Baubin
authors.forename: A C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Krismer
authors.forename: V D
authors.initials: VD
authors.lastname: Mayr
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Amann
mesh_terms: 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*