Pulse annotation of automatic external defibrillator recordings during out of hospital cardiac arrest

Obtaining information about the circulatory status of a patient during resuscitation is crucial. Attempts have been made toward integrating into automated external defibrillators a pulse detection algorithm based on the thoracic impedance signal. The lack of information about the hemodynamic status during out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) has made the validation of such algorithms a challenging task. This study aims at proposing an annotation scheme for the assessment of pulse in OHCA. Being independent from the recording device, several databases could be annotated using the same protocol.