Previous studies have shown that people who suffer cardiac arrest outside of the hospital and are treated by bystanders are more likely to survive when given compressions alone, according to Graham Nichol, M.D., M.P.H., principal investigator of the CCC trial and a professor of medicine and director of the Center for Prehospital Emergency Care and medical director of the Clinical Trials Center at the University of Washington, Seattle. In 2010, AHA adopted new guidelines that recommended continuous chest compressions only for bystanders.
"The CCC trial will help to determine if continuous compressions is equal to or better than standard professional CPR when paramedics, who are better able to provide assisted breathing than bystanders, intervene," said Nichol.
Trained emergency personnel will give all participants in the CCC trial three cycles of CPR followed by heart rhythm analysis and, if needed, an electrical shock (defibrillation), applied to the chest. Half will be randomly assigned to receive continuous compressions combined with pause-free rescue breathing and half will receive standard professional CPR.
The CCC trial will enroll up to 23,600 participants at eight major regional locations across the U.S. and Canada.
The Amiodarone, Lidocaine, or neither (Placebo) for Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Due to Ventricular Fibrillation or Tachycardia study (ALPS) will determine whether amiodarone or lidocaine improves survival-to-hospital-discharge rates for participants with shock-resistant ventricular fibrillation. Participants will receive one or the other drug or a placebo
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| Contact: NHLBI Communications Office NHLBI_news@nhlbi.nih.gov 301-496-4236 NIH/National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute Source:Eurekalert |