title: A description of echocardiography in life support use during cardiac arrest in an Emergency Department before and after a training programme.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate echocardiography in life support (ELS) use in Emergency Department (ED) cardiac arrest patients before and after a training day.
  
  
  METHODS
  A prospective before and after cohort study. Data was collated over a 24-month period before and after an ELS training day from our ED ultrasound database [Registry of Emergency Based Ultrasound Scanning (REBUS)], ED electronic patient records and from stored digital ELS scans.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In the year before ELS training, eight of 187 cardiac arrest patients had ELS performed (4.3%). In the year after training, 46 of 232 cardiac arrest patients had ELS performed (19.8%; P<0.001). This increase has persisted with 40 of 129 (31%) patients undergoing ELS in the 6 months poststudy period. ELS aided management in six of eight pretraining cases and 32 of 46 post-training cases.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Use of ELS significantly increased after the training day most commonly supporting a decision to stop resuscitation. This change in practice has been maintained.
authors.affiliation: aCollege of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine, University of Edinburgh bEmergency Medicine Research Group Edinburgh (EMeRGE), Department of Emergency Medicine, Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh, Edinburgh cEmergency Department, Royal Victoria Infirmary, Newcastle upon Tyne, Tyne and Wear, UK.
authors.forename: Hannah M
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Preston
authors.forename: Adam S T
authors.initials: AS
authors.lastname: Collins
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Reed
authors.forename: Jim
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Connolly
mesh_terms: D016887:Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation / Q000379:methods; D002983:Clinical Competence; D015331:Cohort Studies; D003479:Curriculum; D015150:Echocardiography, Doppler / Q000379:methods*; D004635:Emergency Medicine / Q000193:education*; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D008020:Life Support Care / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D015397:Program Evaluation; D011446:Prospective Studies; D006113:United Kingdom