Glucose thwarts cardiac arrest
28 March, 2012
CHICAGO: Patients showing heart attack symptoms who received a mixture of glucose, insulin and potassium from paramedics were half as likely to go into cardiac arrest or die than those who did not receive the dose, a study found. Researchers trained paramedics to administer the treatment after determining with an electrocardiograph-based instrument that a patient was likely having a heart attack. The results of the study were presented at a meeting of the American College of Cardiology in Chicago. Although the treatment did not stop the heart attack from occurring, patients who received it were 50 percent less likely to go into full cardiac arrest, in which the heart suddenly stops beating, or to die, than those who received a placebo. End.
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