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Background: Landiolol, a highly cardioselective agent with a short half-life (2.4–4 min), is commonly used as a perfusor or bolus application to treat tachycardic arrhythmia. Some small studies suggest that prior oral β-blocker use results in a less effective response to intravenous β-blockers. Methods: This study investigated whether prior chronic oral β-blocker (Lβ) or no prior chronic oral β-blocker (L–) intake influences the response to intravenous push-dose Landiolol in intensive care patients with acute tachycardic arrhythmia. Results: The effects in 30 patients (67 [55–72] years) were analyzed, 10 (33.3%) with and 20 (66.7%) without prior oral β-blocker therapy. Arrhythmias were diagnosed as tachycardic atrial fibrillation in 14 patients and regular, non-fluid-dependent, supraventricular tachycardia in 16 cases. Successful heart rate control (Lβ 4 vs. L– 7, p = 1.00) and rhythm control (Lβ 3 vs. L– 6, p = 1.00) did not significantly differ between the two groups. Both groups showed a significant decrease in heart rate when comparing before and after the bolus administration, without significant differences between the two groups (Lβ −26/min vs. L– −33/min, p = 0.528). Oral β-blocker therapy also did not influence the change in mean arterial blood pressure after Landiolol bolus administration (Lβ −5 mmHg vs. L– −4 mmHg, p = 0.761). Conclusions: A prior chronic intake of β-blockers neither affected the effectiveness of push-dose Landiolol in heart rate or rhythm control nor impacted the difference in heart rate or mean arterial blood pressure before and after the Landiolol boli.

Background: The aim of this study was to design and validate a new checklist and standardized scenario for assessing providers’ performance during Newborn Life Support (NLS). Methods: We invited twelve experts in Neonatology to take part in a three-step Delphi process. They rated the importance of each item of a newly designed assessment tool to evaluate participants’ performance during Newborn Life Support independently on a numeric rating scale from 1 to 5 (1 = lowest; 5 = highest) and were able to give additional comments. All items achieving a mean rating below four after the third round were deleted. For the reliability of the checklist, we calculated interrater reliability. Results: Using a standardized Delphi process, we revised the initial checklist according to the experts’ ratings and comments. The final assessment tool includes 38 items covering all relevant steps during NLS. The mean expert rating of all items was 4.40. Interrater reliability showed substantial agreement between the two raters in the first draft (κ = 0.80) as well as in the final draft of the checklist (κ = 0.73). Conclusion: We designed a feasible assessment tool for evaluating performance during NLS. We proved the checklist to be valid and reasonable using a Delphi validation process and calculating interrater reliability.

BackgroundEye-tracking devices are an innovative tool to understand providers’ attention during stressful medical tasks. The knowledge about what gaze behaviors improve (or harm) the quality of clinical care can substantially improve medical training. The aim of this study is to identify gaze behaviors that are related to the quality of pediatric resuscitation.MethodsForty students and healthcare providers performed a simulated pediatric life support scenario, consisting of a chest compression task and a ventilation task, while wearing eye-tracking glasses. Skill Reporter software measured chest compression (CC) quality and Neo Training software measured ventilation quality. Main eye-tracking parameters were ratio [the number of participants who attended a certain area of interest (AOI)], dwell time (total amount of time a participant attended an AOI), the number of revisits (how often a participant returned his gaze to an AOI), and the number of transitions between AOIs.ResultsThe most salient AOIs were infant chest and ventilation mask (ratio = 100%). During CC task, 41% of participants also focused on ventilation bag and 59% on study nurse. During ventilation task, the ratio was 61% for ventilation bag and 36% for study nurse. Percentage of correct CC rate was positively correlated with dwell time on infant chest (p = 0.044), while the overall CC quality was negatively correlated with dwelling outside of pre-defined task-relevant AOIs (p = 0.018). Furthermore, more dwell time on infant chest predicted lower leakage (p = 0.042). The number of transitions between AOIs was unrelated to CC parameters, but correlated negatively with mask leak during ventilations (p = 0.014). Participants with high leakage shifted their gaze more often between ventilation bag, ventilation mask, and task-irrelevant environment.ConclusionInfant chest and ventilation mask are the most salient AOIs in pediatric basic life support. Especially the infant chest AOI gives beneficial information for the resuscitation provider. In contrast, attention to task-irrelevant environment and frequent gaze shifts seem to harm the quality of care.

Background: The highly β1-selective beta-blocker Landiolol is known to facilitate efficient and safe rate control in non-compensatory tachycardia or dysrhythmia when administered continuously. However, efficacy and safety data of the also-available bolus formulation in critically ill patients are scarce. Methods: We conducted a retrospective cross-sectional study on a real-life cohort of critical care patients, who had been treated with push-dose Landiolol due to sudden-onset non-compensatory supraventricular tachycardia. Continuous hemodynamic data had been acquired via invasive blood pressure monitoring. Results: Thirty patients and 49 bolus applications were analyzed. Successful heart rate control was accomplished in 20 (41%) cases, rhythm control was achieved in 13 (27%) episodes, and 16 (33%) applications showed no effect. Overall, the heart rate was significantly lower (145 (130–150) vs. 105 (100–125) bpm, p < 0.001) in a 90 min post-application observational period in all subgroups. The median changes in blood pressure after the bolus application did not reach clinical significance. Compared with the ventilation settings before the bolus application, the respiratory settings including the required FiO2 after the bolus application did not differ significantly. No serious adverse events were seen. Conclusions: Push-dose Landiolol was safe and effective in critically ill ICU patients. No clinically relevant impact on blood pressure was noted.

Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a well-known pathogen in paediatric patients. However, it also causes substantial morbidity and mortality in adults, posing a major healthcare problem. We present a patient with chronic pulmonary conditions and an acute RSV infection, thus leading to cardiac arrest (CA). We speculate that RSV as the causative agent for CA should be considered in post-resuscitation care. From a wider public health perspective, immuno-naivety for RSV caused by the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic may induce a severe rise in cases, morbidity, and mortality in the future.