The following is a summary of “German Cardiac Arrest Registry (G-CAR)—results of the pilot phase,” published in the June 2024 issue of Cardiology by Pöss et al.

In Europe, over 300,000 people experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) annually. Despite medical advances, few survive with good neurological outcomes and limited evidence from randomized trials for many aspects. 

Researchers conducted a prospective study developing the German Cardiac Arrest Registry (G-CAR) to gather and share results from the pilot phase.

They studied 559 patients with OHCA, all above 18 years old, over 16 months across 15 centers. The median age was 66 (57-75) years. Layperson resuscitation was performed in 60.5% of cases not witnessed by EMS.  

The results showed that initial rhythm was shockable in 46.4%, and 29.1% had ongoing CPR upon hospital arrival. The leading causes were acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or cardiogenic shock (54.8%), with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) being the most common (34.6%). Coronary angiography was done in 62.9%, and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) in 61.4%. Targeted temperature management was used in 44.5%. In-hospital mortality was 70.5%, mainly due to anoxic brain damage (38.8%). Extracorporeal cardiopulmonary (eCPR) was used in 11.0%, with an 85.2% mortality rate.  

Investigators concluded that G-CAR was a critical German registry for adult patients with OHCA, focusing on cardiac and interventional treatments. The 16-month pilot results were promising, and plans to expand G-CAR to a national scale were envisaged.

Source: link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00392-024-02468-5