Introduction
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) generally has a poor prognosis. The development and use of a mechanical chest compression device has been suggested as a measure to achieve sufficient and continuous cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). The mechanical chest compression device (Autopulse®) consists of a battery-driven board with a band attached that applies a 20% anterior-posterior compression of the patient's thorax at a frequency of 80 per minute. The aim of this study was to compare patients treated with the mechanical chest compression device (Autopulse®) with patients treated with conventional CPR. End-tidal CO2 (ETCO2) was used as a qualitative measure of circulation. We hypothesized that patients treated with Autopulse® had a higher ETCO2.