Paramedic PapersHome Cardiac arrest Longer collapse-to-contact times linked with ROSC
Cardiac arrest
Longer collapse-to-contact times linked with ROSC
Longer collapse-to-first-medical-contact interval is independently associated with ROSC in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a paradoxical finding that may reflect case-mix differences
Frontiers in Medicine · 2026-10-27 · Added 12 November 2026
A Chinese single-centre retrospective cohort of 152 OHCA cases found longer collapse-to-first-medical-contact intervals were independently associated with prehospital ROSC — a paradox the authors attribute to case-mix differences rather than a real benefit of slower response.
- Study type
- Cohort
- Design
- Retrospective cohort with dispatch-log and onboard timestamps
- Participants
- 152 consecutive OHCA patients, single emergency centre
- Main finding
- Longer collapse-to-first-medical-contact interval was independently associated with prehospital ROSC; the authors attribute the paradoxical direction to case-mix differences (arrest aetiology, shockable rhythm)
- Caveat
- Small single-centre cohort where sicker patients reaching crews faster likely explains the association
- Bottom line
- Hypothesis-generating
Why it matters in Australia (Medium relevance). Response-interval questions are core to any ambulance service, but this is a small single-centre Chinese system with case-mix confounding the authors themselves flag.
Learning goal
Weigh how case-mix differences shape my interpretation of response interval data when judging cardiac arrest outcomes.
More
- Topic: Cardiac arrest
- Daily scan: 12 November 2026
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