Development Strategies in Medical Education

Introduction: Sudden cardiac arrest is a life-threatening emergency in which timely defibrillation is critical. This study evaluated the diagnostic performance of an Iranian-made Automated External Defibrillator, focusing on rhythm recognition and the device decision to charge for shockable rhythms.
Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted in three phases. Rhythm recognition was first evaluated using simulated signals, followed by assessment of energy output. In the clinical phase, the Iranian AED was connected to patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation and its rhythm analysis was compared with the standard emergency defibrillator. The shock-delivery function of the Iranian device was disabled, and all clinical decisions and treatment were based on standard emergency equipment.
Results:  In the simulation phase, the device identified the tested shockable and non-shockable rhythms with 100% accuracy in the adult and pediatric assessments. In the clinical phase, sensitivity for identifying shockable rhythms and initiating device charging was 94.39% (95% CI: 88.19%-97.91%), and specificity for identifying non-shockable rhythms without charging was 99.60% (95% CI: 99.18%-99.84%).
Discussion: The Iranian-made AED showed acceptable diagnostic performance for distinguishing shockable from non-shockable rhythms. Because shock delivery was disabled during the clinical phase, these findings support the device’s rhythm-recognition performance but should not be interpreted as complete clinical validation of therapeutic shock delivery.