The University of Pittsburgh has received a $1.8 million grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) to establish a database of ECG information.
The database, which would be the largest of its kind, is intended to aid real-time decision-making during CPR for cardiac arrest, according to a press release. In a multicenter study, data will be collected from 10,000 ECG reports from the NHLBI’s Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium clinical research network.
A data management and analytic platform developed by researchers at the university will convert the ECG data to a uniform format, allowing for identification and measurement of waveform differences and enabling the researchers to determine which episodes of ventricular fibrillation better respond to defibrillation, according to the release.
“We will make use of this information to better understand how the quality of CPR might change the ECG patterns, and then link that to the outcomes of the patient all the way to discharge,” James Menegazzi, PhD, endowed professor of resuscitation research at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine, said in the release. “If we can see what works best, we can further refine CPR interventions and save more lives.”
