Prognostic Impact of Heart Rhythm Shockability Trajectory in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Multicenter Retrospective Study

BACKGROUND: This study aimed to investigate the association between the temporal transitions in heart rhythms during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and outcomes after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. METHODS: This was an analysis of the prospectively collected databases in 3 academic hospitals in northern and central Taiwan. Adult patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest transported by emergency medical service between 2015 and 2022 were included. Favorable neurological recovery and survival to hospital discharge were the primary and secondary outcomes, respectively. Time-specific heart rhythm shockability was defined as the probability of shockable rhythms at a particular time point during CPR. The temporal changes in the time-specific heart rhythm shockability were calculated by group-based trajectory modeling. Multivariable logistic regression analyses were performed to examine the association between the trajectory group and outcomes. Subgroup analyses examined the effects of extracorporeal CPR in different trajectories. RESULTS: The study comprised 2118 patients. The median patient age was 69.1 years, and 1376 (65.0%) patients were male. Three distinct trajectories were identified: high-shockability (52 patients; 2.5%), intermediate-shockability (262 patients; 12.4%), and low-shockability (1804 patients; 85.2%) trajectories. The median proportion of shockable rhythms over the course of CPR for the 3 trajectories was 81.7% (interquartile range, 73.2%–100.0%), 26.7% (interquartile range, 16.7%–37.5%), and 0% (interquartile range, 0%–0%), respectively. The multivariable analysis indicated both intermediate- and high-shockability trajectories were associated with favorable neurological recovery (intermediate-shockability: adjusted odds ratio [aOR], 4.98 [95% CI, 2.34–10.59]; high-shockability: aOR, 5.40 [95% CI, 2.03–14.32]) and survival (intermediate-shockability: aOR, 2.46 [95% CI, 1.44–4.18]; high-shockability: aOR, 2.76 [95% CI, 1.20–6.38]). The subgroup analysis further indicated extracorporeal CPR was significantly associated with favorable neurological outcomes (aOR, 4.06 [95% CI, 1.11–14.81]) only in the intermediate-shockability trajectory. CONCLUSIONS: Heart rhythm shockability trajectories were associated with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes, which may be a supplementary factor in guiding the allocation of medical resources, such as extracorporeal CPR.