Point-of-care testing in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a retrospective analysis of relevance and consequences

Abstract Background Metabolic and electrolyte imbalances are some of the reversible causes of cardiac arrest and can be diagnosed even in the pre-hospital setting with a mobile analyser for point-of-care testing (POCT). Methods We conducted a retrospective observational study, which included analysing all pre-hospital resuscitations in the study region between October 2015 and December 2016. A mobile POCT analyser (Alere epoc®) was available at the scene of each resuscitation. We analysed the frequency of use of POCT, the incidence of pathological findings, the specific interventions based on POCT as well as every patient’s eventual outcome. Results N = 263 pre-hospital resuscitations were included and in n = 98 of them, the POCT analyser was used. Of these measurements, 64% were performed using venous blood and 36% using arterial blood. The results of POCT showed that 63% of tested patients had severe metabolic acidosis (pH 6.0 mmol/l/