Sonoclot’s usefulness in prediction of cardiopulmonary arrest prognosis: A proof of concept study

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the usefulness of measuring whole blood coagulation with Sonoclot to predict return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) in patients with out-of-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest (OHCA). This was a prospective, observational clinical study on patients with OHCA who were transferred to our emergency department between August 2016 and July 2018. Patients were divided into two groups: patients with return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC[+] group) and those without (ROSC[−] group). We compared the activated clotting time (ACT), clot rate (CR), and platelet function (PF) as measured with Sonoclot, and the fibrinogen degradation products (FDP) level and D-dimer level between the two groups. We analyzed 87 patients: 37 in the ROSC(+) and 50 in the ROSC(−) groups. Regarding ACT, CR, PF, FDP, and D-dimer, we used receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves to examine how well each factor predicts ROSC. The area under the ROC curve (AUC) of CR was higher than that of the FDP and D-dimer levels. Among patients with cardiogenic cardiac arrest, the AUC of CR was higher than the AUCs of other coagulation factors. In conclusion, viscoelastic blood coagulation measurements using Sonoclot may be useful for predicting ROSC in OHCA patients.