AMC
The Academic Medical Center or AMC is an academic hospital and medical faculty in Amsterdam, affiliated with the University of Amsterdam. The AMC is the largest hospital in Amsterdam and works closely with the VUmc in the Amsterdam UMC that was established on 7 June 2018.
ARREST
ARREST studies out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the province of North-Holland and the Twente region in the Netherlands. ARREST stands for AmsteRdam REsuscitation STudies, and records characteristics of out-of-hospital resuscitation attempts and studies risk factors of sudden cardiac arrest. This website provides background information of ARREST.
Sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
In the Netherlands, 30.000 people have a sudden cardiac arrest each year, and approximately 7.500 out-of-hospital resuscitation attempts take place. Around 15 people die every day as a result of a cardiac arrest. Therefore, investigating which factors increase the risk of a cardiac arrest and studying how resuscitation attempts outside hospital are performed is very important. (source: ‘Reanimatie in Nederland, 2016 (Hartstichting)’ [Dutch]).
Current research
Out-of-hospital resuscitation
The ARREST study is an ongoing prospective registry of all resuscitation attempts in the province of North Holland: an area of 2.4 million inhabitants. Since 2010, the ARREST database also includes resuscitation attempts in the Twente region. The purpose of the data collection is to determine which factors are most important for patient survival, and to see where there are possibilities for improvement in the chain of survival. To this end ARREST cooperates with all ambulance services, dispatch centres and hospitals in the study regions, and collects data from police, fire fighters and lay persons to analyse the first response to a sudden cardiac arrest, including the effective use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs). This publication of the Dutch Heart Foundation gives more details.
Risk factors
Why does one person have a cardiac arrest whereas another person does not? ARREST studies which combination of risk factors can lead to the occurrence of a sudden cardiac arrest. We study the role of diseases and hereditary factors, but also the use of medication and environmental factors.
ESCAPE-NET
Since January 2017 we officially work together with other sudden cardiac arrest research groups in Europe, in the ESCAPE-NET project: European Sudden Cardiac Arrest Network – Towards Prevention, Education and New Effective Treatment, supported by the EU. In this project, international experts with different backgrounds work together share their data, knowledge and expertise.