Abstract
A 56-year-old man had a sudden cardiac arrest when he was playing table tennis. A medical student administered bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation to him and activated the emergency medical service system. When the ambulance officers arrived, the patient's cardiac rhythm registered ventricular fibrillation (VF) on the automated external defibrillator (AED) monitor. However, the first through third AED analysis was not recognized as VF. The cardiac rhythm was analyzed as VF during the fourth analysis and defibrillation was performed. After the shock, the patient's spontaneous circulation resumed. He was discharged without any complications. We found 99% stenosis in his right coronary artery caused the patient's VF. Because various companies make AED software, there is slight variance in AED analysis. However all AED software must meet compliance standards proposed by the American Heart Association as well as Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation. Software sensitivity is not exactly 100% because some sacrifice in sensitivity is necessary to reach adequate specificity. Health care practitioners should be aware that AED software sensitivity is not 100% perfect. Therefore, in cases where the AED doesn't fix the problem, adequate cardiopulmonary resuscitation should be performed.
