abstract = "Background: In some patients with ventricular
fibrillation (VF) there may be a better chance of
successful defibrillation after a period of chest
compression and ventilation before the defibrillation
attempt. It is therefore important to know whether a
defibrillation attempt will be successful. The
predictive power of a model developed by 'genetic'
programming (GP) to predict defibrillation success was
studied. Methods and Results: 203 defibrillations were
administered in 47 patients with out-of-hospital
cardiac arrest due to a cardiac cause. Maximal
amplitude, a total energy of power spectral density,
and the Hurst exponent of the VF electrocardiogram
(ECG) signal were included in the model developed by
GP. Positive and negative likelihood ratios of the
model for testing data were 35.5 and 0.00,
respectively. Using a model developed by GP on the
complete database, 120 of the 124 unsuccessful
defibrillations would have been avoided, whereas all of
the 79 successful defibrillations would have been
administered. Conclusion: The VF ECG contains
information predictive of defibrillation success. The
model developed by GP, including data from the
time-domain, frequency-domain and nonlinear dynamics,
could reduce the incidence of unsuccessful
defibrillations.",
notes = "Journal article given in preference to 12th
International Symposium on Intensive Care
Medicine