Validation of the ROSC after cardiac arrest (RACA) score in Pan-Asian out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients

Abstract

Aim: Survival is the most consistently captured outcome across countries for out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA), with return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) representing the earliest endpoint for 'unbiased' initial resuscitation success. The ROSC after cardiac arrest (RACA) score was developed to predict ROSC and has been validated in several European countries. In this study, we aimed to evaluate the performance of RACA in a Pan-Asian population.

Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of data collected in the Pan-Asian Resuscitation Outcomes Study (PAROS) registry. We included OHCA cases from seven communities (Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand, and United Arab Emirates) between January 2009 and December 2012. Paediatric cases, cases that were conveyed by non-emergency medical services (EMS), and cases with incomplete records were excluded from the study.

Results: The RACA score showed similar discrimination performance as the original German study and various European validation studies. However, it had poor calibration with the original constant regression coefficient, which was primarily due to the low ROSC rate (8.2%) in the PAROS cohort. The calibration performance of RACA significantly improved after the constant coefficient was modified to adjust for the disparity in ROSC rates between Asia and Europe.

Conclusion: This is the largest validation study of the RACA score. RACA consistently performs well in both Pan-Asian and European communities and can thus be a valuable tool for evaluating EMS systems. However, to implement it, the constant coefficient has to be modified in the RACA formula with local historical data.

Keywords: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation; Emergency medical services; Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; Pan-Asian; Registry; Return of spontaneous circulation.