The randomized study, conducted in five North American cities including Columbus, showed that victims of sudden cardiac arrest were more likely to be discharged alive from the hospital if they received manual cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) rather than CPR administered by the mechanical device.

Results of the study are published in the June 14 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Lynn White, clinical research manager in emergency medicine at Ohio State University Medical Center, coordinated the 34 medic crews involved in the Columbus study. "Everyone thought the device was a great idea and that its ability to provide compressions of much higher quality than those administered by humans would be lifesaving," said White. "The results are certainly not what we anticipated at the onset of the study."

The study involved 1,071 people who experienced out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in Columbus, Seattle, Pittsburgh, and Vancouver and Calgary, Canada. The study, originally planned to last 12-18 months, was halted in March 2005, nine months after it began, when it became apparent that the study device was not improving long-term outcomes.

The study device, the AutoPulse Resuscitation System, consists of a short backboard with a band fitted over the chest of the patient in cardiac arrest. At the push of a button, the band constricts the chest and delivers 80 compressions per minute.

In a controlled laboratory setting, the device produced greater blood flow to the heart and brain than manual CPR. But when deployed in real-life emergencies, as provided in the study, researchers found that patients were less likely to survive if they received compressions from the device. In the AutoPuls
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Contact: David Crawford
crawford.1@osu.edu
614-293-3737
Ohio State University
13-Jun-2006