Development of a centralised national AED (automated external defibrillator) network across all ambulance services in the United Kingdom.

Background: Early cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation is key to increasing survival following an out-of-hospital-cardiac-arrest (OHCA). However, automated external defibrillators (AEDs) are used in a very small percentage of cases. Despite large numbers of AEDs in the community, the absence of a unified system for registering their locations across the UK's ambulance services may have resulted in missed opportunities to save lives. Therefore, representatives from the resuscitation community worked alongside ambulance services to develop a single repository for data on the location of AEDs in the UK. Methods: A national defibrillator network, "The Circuit", was developed by the British Heart Foundation in collaboration with the Association of Ambulance Chief Executives, the UK ambulance services, the Resuscitation Council UK and St John Ambulance. The database allows individuals or organisations to record information about AED location, accessibility, and availability. The database synchronises with ambulance computer aided dispatch systems to provide UK ambulance services with real-time information on the nearest, available AED. Results: The Circuit was successfully rolled out to all 14 UK ambulance services. Since 2019, 82,108 AEDs have been registered. Of the AED data collected by The Circuit, 54% were not previously registered to any ambulance service, and are therefore new registrations. Conclusion: The Circuit provides ambulance services with a single point of access to AED locations in the UK. Since the launch of the system the number of defibrillators registered has doubled. Linking the Circuit data with patient outcome data will help understand whether improving the accessibility to AEDs is associated with increased survival.

Non-volatile organic compounds in exhaled breath particles correspond to active tuberculosis.

Human breath contains trace amounts of non-volatile organic compounds (NOCs) which might provide non-invasive methods for evaluating individual health. In previous work, we demonstrated that lipids detected in exhaled breath aerosol (EBA) could be used as markers of active tuberculosis (TB). Here, we advanced our analytical platform for characterizing small metabolites and lipids in EBA samples collected from participants enrolled in clinical trials designed to identify molecular signatures of active TB. EBA samples from 26 participants with active TB and 73 healthy participants were processed using a dual-phase extraction method, and metabolites and lipids were identified via mass spectrometry database matching. In total, 13 metabolite and 9 lipid markers were identified with statistically different optimized relative standard deviation values between individuals diagnosed with active TB and the healthy controls. Importantly, EBA lipid profiles can be used to separate the two sample types, indicating the diagnostic potential of the identified molecules. A feature ranking algorithm reduced this number to 10 molecules, with the membrane glycerophospholipid, phosphatidylinositol 24:4, emerging as the top driver of segregation between the two groups. These results support the use of this approach to identify consistent NOC signatures from EBA samples in active TB cases. This suggests the potential to apply this method to other human diseases which alter respiratory NOC release.

Alprazolam (Xanax) use among southern youth: beliefs and social norms concerning dangerous rides on "handlebars".

While the epidemiologic trends concerning alprazolam (Xanax) are unknown, the use of benzodiazepines, in general, has increased in popularity among youth within recent years. To shed light on the drug problem, the current pilot study used a qualitative approach to investigate relevant beliefs, norms, and perceived addiction associated with alprazolam initiation among 46 youth who were attending an inpatient drug treatment program during the spring of 2004. Overwhelmingly, most participants stated that addiction to alprazolam occurs as early as initial consumption. Most youth in the study stated that their friends felt it was normal to use alprazolam. In addition, their control beliefs revealed that if someone wanted to stop it would be difficult because of the widespread use in their communities and family social reinforcement involved with its use. In this study, a majority of students stated that medical professionals such as doctors and pharmacists were the greatest facilitator of alprazolam acquisition. Implications for these results are discussed.