Canadian Sudden Cardiac Arrest Network
Condition: Sudden Cardiac Death; Sudden Cardiac Arrest
MeSH terms: Heart Arrest; Death, Sudden, Cardiac; Death
Study type: Observational [Patient Registry]

Summary: 
      The overall aim of the project is to develop a national registry to accurately measure the
      burden of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) among the general Canadian population. This project
      will create a common platform to link existing sources of information (EMS, Coroner and
      Administrative Databases) in order to fully understand the causes and outcomes of SCA. This
      comprehensive, unique registry will inform the progress and effectiveness of all CANet SCA
      programs aimed at reducing SCA. Understanding the antecedents, causes and outcomes of SCA
      will allow for new initiatives/investigations to reduce SCA, by using targeted interventions
      both effectively and efficiently.
    

Detailed description: 
      SCA is defined as an abrupt collapse with documented loss of vital signs,in a seemingly
      healthy individual and attributable to a cardiac cause. Estimates of SCA incidence vary
      widely from 53 to 153 per 100,000 persons/year. Most published studies use public reporting,
      death certificates or autopsy based registries to identify and classify SCA cases, but
      limited sources often result in missed cases. Prospective registries monitoring SCAs over
      time in large populations provide the most accurate estimation of incidence rates.

      An ongoing challenge in developing effective strategies to decrease SCA are the varying
      definitions used to define SCA. Many published studies identify SCA as OHCA of "no obvious
      cause" (assumed to be a cardiac arrest due to an underlying primary cardiac cause); however,
      the two are not synonymous. Verifying that a particular OHCA is due to cardiac disease
      requires careful establishment, using data from multiple sources and case-by-case
      adjudication, which is difficult and not routinely performed. Accurate identification of true
      SCAs is crucial if we plan to implement interventions aimed to prevent them.

      The Canadian Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium (CanROC) investigators are proposing to
      leverage experience gained from developing a sophisticated registry of all emergency medical
      service (EMS)-attended OHCA patients in Ontario and British Columbia (Resuscitation Outcomes
      Consortium - ROC 2005-2015). This registry has since been spread across Canada to include
      nine other provinces covering >15 million people in urban and rural communities. The proposed
      C-SCAN Registry will leverage and expand upon the CanROC infrastructure by augmenting its
      dataset to include detailed information both preceding and following the SCA event. Using
      this information to identify high-risk patients, we aim to implement targeted initiatives to
      decrease the incidence of SCA in Canada.

      Objectives:

        1. To accurately identify and classify all possible SCA cases within the study area using
           new and existing data sources.

        2. To accurately measure the incidence and causes of SCA by age and sex.

        3. To measure the triggers and warning signs of SCA cases in relation to age, sex and
           etiology for the purposes of prediction and prevention.

        4. To confirm if the preliminary/pilot observations seen in southern Ontario are mirrored
           in other Canadian communities, both urban and rural, and in communities that are
           culturally and ethnically different from those in urban Toronto.
    

Intervention name(s): There is no intervention in this study.
Intervention type(s): Other
Intervention description(s): There is no intervention in this study.
Observational model: Cohort
Time perspective: Prospective
Sampling method: Non-Probability Sample
Study population: 
        People between the ages of 2 and 85 years old with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest of no
        obvious cause who are attended to by paramedics who survive or die.