pulseless electrical activity

Pulseless electrical activity leads to a loss of cardiac output, and the blood supply to the brain is interrupted.

Pulseless electrical activity is when the electrocardiogram shows a rhythm that should produce a pulse but it does not.

Complete absence of mechanical cardiac activity includes asystole and pulseless electrical activity.

Lack of oxygen weakens the heart, and the heart will have electricity present but will not contract (pulseless electrical activity).

Other changes include the exclusion of Atropine administration for pulseless electrical activity (PEA) and asystole.

Where an underlying cause for PEA cannot be determined and/or reversed, the treatment of pulseless electrical activity is similar to that for asystole.

Pulseless electrical activity (PEA)

This causes obstructive shock to develop, and if left untreated then cardiac arrest may occur (in which case the presenting rhythm is likely to be pulseless electrical activity).

It is possible for a human or other animal to be in cardiac arrest, but still have a normal ECG signal (a condition known as pulseless electrical activity).

In a trauma patient presenting with PEA (pulseless electrical activity) in the absence of hypovolemia and tension pneumothorax, the most likely diagnosis is cardiac tamponade.

They saw PEA (pulseless electrical activity, they could see a beat but there was no contraction) and administered atropine, epinephrine and sodium bicarbonate.

Defibrillation is only effective for certain heart rhythms, namely ventricular fibrillation or pulseless ventricular tachycardia, rather than asystole or pulseless electrical activity.

His name is often abbreviated as EMD, which is also the acronym of the feared terminal cardiac event 'electromechanical dissociation', otherwise known as pulseless electrical activity.

However, in the case of "non-shockable" rhythms such as Pulseless electrical activity (PEA), defibrillation is not indicated, and the importance of CPR rises.

The 2010 guidelines, from the American Heart Association has removed its recommendation for using atropine in pulseless electrical activity and asystole due to the lack of evidence for its use.

The goal is avoidance of infarction, heart failure, and/or lethal arrhythmias (ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, asystole, or pulseless electrical activity), and so ultimately to restore normal sinus rhythm.

Atropine is no longer indicated for the treatment of pulseless electrical activity (PEA) or asystole per the 2010 ACLS guidelines, as it has not been shown to improve outcomes in these clinical scenarios.

Pulseless electrical activity or PEA (also known by the older terms electromechanical dissociation) refers to a cardiac arrest situation in which a heart rhythm is observed on the electrocardiogram that should be producing a pulse, but is not.

In a systematic review and meta-analysis (Aung and Htay, 2005), five key variables were reviewed and were found to have no significant difference between epinephrine and vasopressin, regardless of the initial cardiac rhythm which initiated the code (Ventricular Fibrillation/Tachycardia, Pulseless Electrical Activity, or Asystole).