(Press-News.org) Minneapolis/St. Paul (Mar. 1, 2011) – A five-year clinical trial led by University of Minnesota Medical School researchers has led to a new method of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) that improves long-term survival rates with good brain function by 50 percent.
The new technique goes beyond the standard hands-only compression-decompression method to include to two devices that increase blood circulation. Researchers found that the new device combination caused the heart and brain to receive nearly three times more blood flow during each compression-decompression cycle when compared to standard CPR.
Currently, nearly 300,000 Americans suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrest every year, and overall survival rates average only 5 percent. Poor survival rates persist in part because manual chest compressions and ventilation, termed standard CPR, is inherently inefficient, providing less than 25 percent of normal blood flow to the heart and brain.
"The current method of CPR has saved countless lives and is an indispensible tool in emergency medicine, but we want to bring to light the potential of using this new dual device system in combination with compression-decompression," said Demetris Yannopoulos, M.D., Assistant Professor of Medicine and Research Director of Interventional Cardiology at the University. "This dual device system can not only increase survival rates, but can improve brain function after cardiac arrest."
According to Yannopoulos, the study's authors will recommend the method as the new standard for the American Heart Association. The device combination method is also a prospective treatment for shock and head injury, as it augments blood flow to the brain and other tissues.
In the new method, one device (ResQPump) consists of a suction cup that attaches to the patient's chest. It includes a handle to manually lift the chest after each compression, stimulating blood flow. A second device (ResQPOD) connects to the patient's airway with a facemask or breathing tube and prevents air from rushing into the lungs while the first device raises the chest. Combined, the two create a greater vacuum in the chest, pumping blood to the heart and brain more effectively.
The advance comes 50 years after the now-standard method of CPR was initially developed.
"We are moving from prehistoric times – relying only on our hands – to modern times, implementing tools to treat victims," said Keith Lurie, M.D., Professor of Medicine and Emergency Medicine at the University. "This advance is a product of collaboration between emergency medicine specialists, cardiologists, anesthesiologists, neurologists, and countless other professions. A multidisciplinary environment was absolutely necessary for our success."
CPR is an important rescue skill used to treat cardiac arrest, a condition characterized by sudden, abrupt loss of heart function. CPR can stimulate a small amount of blood flow to the heart and brain to "buy time" until a normal heart beat is restored by defibrillation or with the aid of drugs.
The CPR device (ResQPump, also called CardioPump) and the impedance threshold device (ResQPOD) are manufactured by Advanced Circulatory Systems in Roseville, Minn.
"By partnering with Advanced Circulatory Systems on their mission to restore life and improve quality of living for patients suffering cardiac arrest, we were able to develop devices that can advance a new model of collaborative patient care forward," said Yannopoulos.
INFORMATION:
The study was published in the online version of The Lancet on Jan. 19, 2011, and appeared in the print publication on Jan. 22, 2011. The National Institutes of Health funded the clinical trial.
END
ANN ARBOR, Mich. — Recent research suggests vitamin D may be able to stop or prevent cancer. Now, a new study finds an enzyme that plays a role in metabolizing vitamin D can predict lung cancer survival.
The study, from researchers at the University of Michigan Comprehensive Cancer Center, suggests that this enzyme stops the anti-cancer effects of vitamin D.
Levels of the enzyme, called CYP24A1, were elevated as much as 50 times in lung adenocarcinoma compared with normal lung tissue. The higher the level of CYP24A1, the more likely tumors were to be aggressive. About ...
University Park, Pa. -- Free time is not always a fun time for people with autism. Giving them the power to choose their own leisure activities during free time, however, can boost their enjoyment, as well as improve communication and social skills, according to an international team of researchers.
"For many of us, we look at recreation as a time to spend on activities that are fun and that are designed for our enjoyment," said John Dattilo, professor, recreation, park and tourism management, Penn State. "But for some people with disabilities, particularly those who ...
A new review published in WIREs Nanomedicine and Nanobiotechnology explores how nanotechnology may provide powerful new tools that could have a marked impact on the therapeutic and diagnostic measures available to surgeons.
Nanotechnology uses very small objects—billionths of a meter—to achieve tasks that would be difficult at larger scales. Nanodevices travel relatively freely throughout the body and can enter cells, making them useful for drug delivery, or mimic the features of the environment outside cells, making them useful for tissue engineering.
Their very properties ...
Researchers have over time been able to show that medicine designed at nanoscale offers unprecedented opportunities for targeted treatment of serious diseases such as cancer. However, now research also shows that the body's immune system plays a significant part in the drug delivery process.
"Researchers today are able encapsulate medicine in nanoparticles the size of viruses. The nanoparticles are effective for drug delivery – the delivery of the medicine to the body – because they can very precisely find diseased cells and carry the medicine to them. This means that ...
COLUMBIA, Mo. – Small businesses are seen as an important part of the American economy. These businesses often rely heavily on loans to stay afloat. The recent economic recession has created a reduction in available credit for many small businesses, making it difficult for many businesses to operate. Tansel Yilmazer, assistant professor in the personal financial planning department in the College of Human Environmental Sciences at the University of Missouri, says that lack of available credit has forced many small business owners to use their household savings or other ...
WASHINGTON, March 1, 2011 — The latest episode in the American Chemical Society's (ACS) award-winning podcast series, "Global Challenges/Chemistry Solutions," focuses on the discovery that household sewage has far more potential as an alternative energy source than previously thought.
Scientists say the discovery, which increases the estimated potential energy in wastewater by almost 20 percent, could spur efforts to extract methane, hydrogen and other fuels from this vast and, as yet, untapped resource. Their report appears in ACS' journal Environmental Science & Technology. ...
Despite substantial gains in knowledge and understanding of autism over the last three years, we are still no closer to either prevention or cure, according to Sir Michael Rutter, Professor of Developmental Psychopathology at the Institute of Psychiatry, King's College London. In a new study, Rutter reviews the latest scientific developments in the study of autism, published between 2007-2010. His paper is available online in Springer's Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Professor Rutter is the first consultant of child psychiatry in the United Kingdom. He has ...
Those who enjoy the caffeinated lift that comes from drinking traditional coffees and teas may tend to overlook the benefits of drinking herbal infusions. Now, as explained in this month's issue of Agricultural Research magazine, the idea that herbal teas may provide a variety of health benefits is no longer just folklore.
U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA)-funded scientists in Boston, Mass., have looked into the science-based evidence of health benefits from drinking three of the most popular herbals in America. Diane McKay and Jeffrey Blumberg are at the Jean Mayer ...
The more honesty and humility an employee may have, the higher their job performance, as rated by the employees' supervisor. That's the new finding from a Baylor University study that found the honesty-humility personality trait was a unique predictor of job performance.
"Researchers already know that integrity can predict job performance and what we are saying here is that humility and honesty are also major components in that," said Dr. Wade Rowatt, associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Baylor, who helped lead the study. "This study shows that those ...
Fossilized bones discovered in Texas from a flying reptile that died 89 million years ago may be the earliest occurrence in the world of the prehistoric creature known as Pteranodon.
Previously, Pteranodon bones have been found in Kansas, South Dakota and Wyoming in the Niobrara and Pierre geological formations. This likely Pteranodon specimen is the first of its kind found in Texas, according to paleontologist Timothy S. Myers at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, who identified the reptile.
The specimen was discovered north of Dallas by an amateur fossil hunter ...
