News

05 Jan Study shows more hospitalized children surviving cardiac arrest

Posted at 13:58h in News

IOWA CITY – More children are surviving in-hospital cardiac arrest than they did one decade ago, according to a University of Iowa-led study of data from hospitals using resuscitation guidelines from the American Heart Association. Lead author Dr. Saket Girotra, an interventional cardiologist at UI Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa City, said three times as many children survived in 2009, as compared to 2000 in the 12 hospitals in the Heart Association’s “Get with the Guidelines” registry. In 2000, just 14.3 percent...

02 Jan Invasive Strategy Ups Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest Survival

Posted at 13:58h in News

For patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) who do not regain consciousness, an invasive strategy characterized by emergency coronary angiography and subsequent percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), if indicated, is associated with improved in-hospital survival, according to a study published in the Dec. 15 issue of The American Journal of Cardiology. Davide Zanuttini, MD, of the Santa Maria della Misericordia University Hospital in Udine, Italy, and associates conducted a retrospective study involving 93 consecutive OHCA patients (76% men; mean age, 67 years)....

18 Dec About a Cardiac Arrest Survivor

Posted at 13:52h in News

When Americans know CPR and understand cardiac arrest, they are more than willing to help cardiac arrest victims. Here is a condensed story from The Kansas City Star, Friday, November 23, 2012. Begin quote: Cardiac-arrest victim bucks survival odds, thanks to three women By TOD PALMER The Kansas City Star Shelley Lewis pumped Joe Bell’s chest roughly 1,500 times in 15 minutes. The two-inch-deep compressions cracked ribs, broke his sternum and punctured a lung. They also saved his life. Bell, who builds upscale homes in Chicago, was...

11 Dec Importance of early bystander CPR in successful resuscitation from cardiac arrest

Posted at 13:51h in News

There is often confusion about the difference between cardiac arrest and a heart attack. There is a large difference, including that cardiac arrest may be caused by a heart attack. Cardiac arrest is an abrupt cessation of pump function in the heart; prompt intervention can usually reverse a cardiac arrest, but without intervention, it will almost always lead to death. Heart attacks, while serious, often do not lead directly to death quickly. Cardiac arrest, in some cases, is an expected outcome...

15 Nov Exercise not to blame for sudden cardiac death

Posted at 13:12h in News

Exercise is not to blame for sudden cardiac death in young and seemingly fit people, say researchers. Instead, the phenomenon is largely caused by unrecognized heart disease, with most cases occurring at home when not doing exercise, they report. Speaking at the Canadian Cardiovascular Congress in Toronto, Ontario, researcher Andrew Krahn (University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada) blames distorted news coverage for the assumption that sports might be to blame for such deaths. Read More.....

12 Nov Study finds heart chelation therapy effective but raises questions

Posted at 13:12h in News

(CNN) -- In results that are stunning cardiologists, a new study shows a "fringe" alternative treatment for heart disease was found to be very effective at preventing heart problems -- but the report is so controversial even its lead author is questioning the results. The patients in the study had had heart attacks, and were assigned to receive either a placebo or a series of intravenous drug infusions called chelation therapy, an unorthodox treatment that has long been looked down upon...

30 Oct October is National Cardiac Arrest awareness month

Posted at 13:55h in News

Even though we’ve just completed National Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month in October, many people still do not understand that sudden cardiac arrest – which differs from a heart attack – affects more than 1,000 people each day, and on average, fewer than one in 10 victims survive. Congress declared October National Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness Month in 2008. Four years later, more than a million deaths have still occurred. Beyond declaring the month of recognition, the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation...

17 Oct Zombies teach CPR in creepy public service announcement

Posted at 13:34h in News

Do you know how to perform CPR in a life-saving situation? If not, the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada is here to help - if it doesn't scare you to death first. In a new public service announcement, the foundation offers a Halloween-themed take on the lifesaving procedure, and who better to teach how to save a person dying from cardiac arrest than the undead. Nightmares Fear Factory: Faces of fear at haunted house CPR, as taught by British action star Vinnie...

09 Oct Marathon runner recovering after cardiac arrest

Posted at 18:31h in News

Medical staff on course used defibrillator to restart man's heart A runner who suffered sudden cardiac arrest during Sunday's Bank of America Chicago Marathon collapsed within a block of a medical tent, marathon organizers said. The 47-year-old man was approaching the 21st mile on the Near South Side when a medical school student and a doctor saw him collapse, Dr. George Chiampas, the marathon's medical director, said Monday. The two marathon volunteers rushed to his side and saw that he was unresponsive, Chiampas...

25 Sep Improved Patient Education and Ongoing Psychological Support

Posted at 12:42h in News

Improved patient education and ongoing psychological support will help people cope with the psychological distress of having an implanted defibrillator, according to a scientific statement from the American Heart Association. The statement, published in the American Heart Association journal Circulation, is a comprehensive review of the psychosocial and quality of life for people who receive an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) to restore normal heart rhythm and prevent sudden cardiac death. It includes recommendations for improved patient care and identifies areas where more...