title: Predictors of favorable and poor prognosis in unwitnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest with a non-shockable initial rhythm.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Unwitnessed OHCA patients with non-shockable initial rhythms account for nearly half of all OHCA patients, and their prognosis is extremely poor. To date, no studies have focused on these patients. This study aimed to investigating the predictors of favorable and poor prognosis in these patients.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a nationwide, population-based, observational study of data from the All Japan Utstein Registry, which included 121,081 adult OHCA patients subjected to resuscitation attempts from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2010. The primary endpoint was favorable neurological outcome one month after OHCA.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the eligible 120,721 patients, 68,024 (56.3%) were unwitnessed OHCA patients with non-shockable initial rhythms. A younger age (18-64 years: as a reference; 65-84 years: OR 0.68, 95% CI 0.54-0.87, p=0.0019; ≥85 years: OR 0.46, 95% CI 0.33-0.63, p<0.0001), conversion to shockable rhythm (OR 2.14, 95% CI 1.43-3.13, p=0.0003), and pre-hospital ROSC (OR 94.85, 95% CI 75.71-119.35, p<0.0001) were independently associated with a favorable neurological outcome. Favorable neurological outcome rate was 28.8% in unwitnessed OHCA patients with non-shockable initial rhythms with all three favorable predictors, and 0.18% in patients without any of the three predictors (OR 230.34, 95% CI 127.37-402.96, P<0.0001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It may be worthwhile to provide maximum lifesaving medical resources for patients with all of the favorable predictors (<65 years, conversion to shockable rhythm, and pre-hospital ROSC); however, continued resuscitation efforts for patients without these predictors should likely be restrained.
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan. Electronic address: tatsumafukuda-jpn@umin.ac.jp.
authors.forename: Tatsuma
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Fukuda
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Takehiro
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Matsubara
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Kent
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Doi
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoko
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Fukuda-Ohashi
authors.affiliation: Department of Emergency and Critical Care Medicine, Graduate School of Medicine, The University of Tokyo, 7-3-1, Hongo, Bunkyo-ku, Tokyo, 113-8655, Japan.
authors.forename: Naoki
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Yahagi
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000379:methods; D015331:Cohort Studies; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D058687:Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011379:Prognosis; D012042:Registries; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
keywords: Medical futility; Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; Prognosis