UMEM Educational Pearls

Category: Critical Care

Title: Pan-Scan for OHCA?

Keywords: cardiac arrest, ROSC, computed tomography, CT scan, imaging (PubMed Search)

Posted: 6/16/2021 by Kami Windsor, MD
Click here to contact Kami Windsor, MD

 

A recent prospective observational study examined the diagnostic usefulness of head-to-pelvis sudden death computed tomography (SDCT) in 104 patients with ROSC and unclear OHCA etiology.

  • Obtained within 6 hours of hospital arrival
  • Noncontrast head CT + ECG-gated chest CTA with abbreviated coronary imaging + contrasted CT of the abdomen to just below the pelvis. 

 

Diagnostic performance: 

  • Detected 95% of OHCA etiologies diagnosable by CT
  • Detected 98% of time-critical diagnoses requiring emergent intervention (including complications of resuscitation)
  • The sole reason for diagnosis of OHCA etiology in 13%

 

Safety:

  • 28% of patients with elevated creatinine at 48h (down from 55% at presentation; study excluded GFR < 30ml/min unless treating provider felt the data was needed for care)
  • 1% (1 patient) required RRT 
  • No false positives noted, no allergic contrast reactions, 1 contrast IV extravasation

 

Bottom Line: For OHCA without clear etiology, SDCT explicitly including a thoracic CTA may have diagnostic benefit over standard care alone with the added benefit of identification of resuscitation complications. 

 

References

Branch KRH, Strote J, Gunn M, et al. Early head-to-pelvis computed tomography in out-of-hospital circulatory arrest without obvious etiology. Acad Emerg Med. 2021 Apr;28(4):394-403. doi: 10.1111/acem.14228.