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Death, Sudden, CardiacSUB30NCT03700125

Pre-hospital ECMO in Advanced Resuscitation in Patients With Refractory Cardiac Arrest. ( SUB30 )

A study testing ECMO resuscitation in people with Death, Sudden, Cardiac and Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, run by Barts & The London NHS Trust at 2 sites in United Kingdom.

Completed

Finished. The study has ended and is not enrolling. Results may be posted on the official record.

Official record
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Trial summary

To establish whether a pre-hospital advanced physician/ paramedic cardiac arrest team that is ECMO capable can establish ECMO flow within 30 minutes of collapse. The Sub30 study will investigate the technical and logistical feasibility of instituting pre-hospital Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR)… Read more about this study

Who is it for?
Ages 18 years and older
What is being tested?
ECMO resuscitation
Type of treatment
Surgery or procedure
Could I receive a placebo?
No, everyone receives an active treatment
How many people
5 participants
Where
2 sitesUnited Kingdom
Study dates
23 Sep 2019to 15 Dec 2022
Phase
Interventional
Are there results?
Yes, posted in the registrySummary in the doctors' view

Key requirements

Who can take part, as listed by the sponsor. Only the study team can confirm whether you are eligible, so take this list to your doctor.

  • Ages 18 years and older
  • All sexes
  • No healthy volunteers
  • Adult, Older adult

Who may be able to join

  • Adult patients who:
  • have a witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
  • a presumed cardiac aetiology to their cardiac arrest
  • receive bystander chest compressions within 3 minutes
  • remain in cardiac arrest at 20 minutes following the call to the emergency services or fail to sustain ROSC in the pre-hospital setting

Who cannot join

  • The following patients will not be suitable for entry into the study:
  • Known to be are visibly appear younger than 18 years old or older than 65 years.
  • Known or visible advanced pregnancy (when resuscitative hysterotomy should be performed)
  • No signs of life (physical movement or breathing) AND evidence of ineffective chest compressions suggested by:
  • absence of electrical activity at 20 minutes time out OR
  • end tidal carbon dioxide level of less than 1.3 kPa (10 mmHg)
  • Evidence from others present at the scene or patient examination that ECMO unlikely to benefit patient (e.g. advanced malignancy, severe frailty).

Trial locations and contacts

2 sites in 1 country.

United Kingdom2 sites
  • St Bartholomew's Hospital

    London, EC1 6BQ

  • London Ambulance Service Trust

    London, SE1 0BW

Other trials in United Kingdom

About this study

Official title: Feasibility Study of a Pre-hospital Extra-corporeal Membrane Oxygenation (ECMO) Capable Advanced Resuscitation Team at Achieving Blood Flow Within 30 Minutes in Patients With Refractory Cardiac Arrest.

To establish whether a pre-hospital advanced physician/ paramedic cardiac arrest team that is ECMO capable can establish ECMO flow within 30 minutes of collapse. The Sub30 study will investigate the technical and logistical feasibility of instituting pre-hospital Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR) within 30 minutes of collapse for selected patients (n=6) in a geographical sector of Greater London. It will achieve this through a unique collaboration between the primary emergency dispatch and response services (London Ambulance Service NHS Trust, LAS), pre-hospital practitioners (LAS and London Air Ambulance) and clinicians in ECMO (Barts Health NHS Trust).

Read the detailed description

Every year, in London, the ambulance service treats over 4,000 patients who have a had a cardiac arrest (or their heart has stopped). Less than 1 in 10 patients survive to get home. Some of those who survive have severe brain damage since their brains did not receive blood and oxygen when their heart was stopped. The ambulance service in London manages to get to a patient, on average, 7 minutes following a 999 call. The paramedics are very skilled in restarting people's hearts and often manage this in less than 10 minutes. However, sometimes it can take much longer or not be possible. The risks of a patient dying or suffering brain damage increase the longer it takes to restart the heart, particularly after about 20-30 minutes. An extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) machine may reduce these risks by pumping a patient's blood through an artificial lung and to their vital body organs - temporarily replacing the function of the heart and lungs. The ECMO is used in normal care to support patients after a cardiac arrest once a patient reaches the hospital, but in this study we want to see if the ECMO can be used very soon after the cardiac arrest is reported via the 999 call.

In the Sub30 study, the ECMO team and machine to travel immediately to where the patient collapses rather than wait for the patient to be moved to a hospital. The study hypothesis is that the ECMO will be started faster and that this may improve patient survival and outcomes.

The ECMO team consists of three senior doctors and a paramedic. They attend patients who have collapsed and start ECMO if standard advanced resuscitation techniques fail to restart the heart in 20 minutes. The team will aim to have the ECMO machine started within 30 minutes of the 999 call. The team have achieved this in training and the current study will assess whether it is possible to do this in six patients in real-life.

A target of thirty minutes to achieve ECMO flow or return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is less than in published series to date. This can be achieved by:

  • integration into an established pre-hospital emergency response services that aggressively pursue ROSC through optimised Advanced Life Support
  • immediate deployment of an ECPR-capable cardiac arrest team as a primary resource, as opposed to delayed secondary deployment. Dispatch will be done by the established Advanced Paramedic Practitioner (APP) desk of London Ambulance Service, with the objective to reach the patient within 8-10 minutes of the 999 call.
  • early placement of guide-wires into the femoral vessels during on-going conventional CPR, a procedure with low complication risk that does not commit the team to ECPR but will minimise the delay to ECPR support if conventional resuscitative techniques are not successful within 20 minutes
  • facilitated guide-wire placement through real-time wireless ultrasound delivered to the operator through augmented reality smart glasses.

Some out of hospital cardiac arrests (OHCA) are irreversible in nature and ECPR would not provide benefit to these patients. The ECPR team will not be task fixated on providing ECPR, but also supportive of the APP primary responders and provide ECPR only in settings of refractory cardiac arrest that fulfils the study criteria, that have been chosen based on best available evidence to identify those patients in whom ECPR is likely to be of benefit.

If pre-hospital ECMO is feasible within 30 minutes of chest compressions starting, then a larger randomised controlled study of clinical and cost effectiveness is merited. Optimisation of the delivery of ECPR is vital, prior to a controlled study, in order to maximise any potential benefits for patients.

Data from Sub30 will inform the design of such studies enabling an estimation of the size of any potential outcome benefits and the likely affordability for a healthcare service.

Being tested
ECMO resuscitation
Keywords
Advanced life support (ALS), Extra-corporeal Membrane Oxygenation Resuscitation (ECMO)
Medical subject headings
Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, Ventricular Fibrillation

What participants receive

What participants receive. In a randomised study each person is assigned to one group by chance.

  • ECMO resuscitationProcedure or surgery

    Also called Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation

    Extracorporeal Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (ECPR) using ECMO within 30 minutes of cardiac arrest

Study groups in NCT03700125
Study groupRoleWhat they receive
ECMO resuscitationExperimental6 patients who meet the eligibility criteria will be treated by pre-hospital advanced physician/ paramedic cardiac arrest team that is ECMO capable and can establish ECMO flow within 30 minutes of collapse
Receives: Procedure: ECMO resuscitation

What is being measured

The primary outcome is the main question the study is designed to answer.

  1. Proportion of Patients Successfully Established With Pre-hospital ECPR

    The primary endpoint is the proportion of patients successfully established with pre-hospital ECPR within 30 minutes of collapse

    Measured: Within 30 minutes of collapse

Secondary outcomes (10)
  1. Ambulance Dispatch

    Number of patients not dispatched to as travel time too great/team unavailable

    Measured: Within 30 minutes of collapse

  2. Successful Cannulation

    The number of patients successfully cannulated 31 and 45 minutes

    Measured: between 31 and 45 minutes; and 46 and 60 minutes.

  3. Number of Patients With Return of Spontaneous Circulations (ROSC)

    The number of patients patients who achieve ROSC prior to the 20 minutes timeout, number of patients in refractory cardiac arrest at 20 minutes in whom ROSC is achieved prior to ECMO flow

    Measured: Within 20 minutes of cardiac arrest

  4. Emergency Call-out Time Frame

    The time interval between call to the emergency services and ECPR team arrival

    Measured: At 30 minutes after cardiac arrest

  5. Successful Guide Wire Placement

    The proportion of potentially supportable patients in whom guidewire placement is attempted and achieved

    Measured: Up to 30 minutes after cardiac arrest

  6. Incidence of ECPR-related Complications

    Assessment of ECPR-related complications, such as incidence of vascular damage, haemorrhage requiring transfusion and new organ dysfunction

    Measured: Duration of ECMO run, between 3 - 14 days

  7. Clinical Outcome Via FIM at 3 Months

    Assessment of functional status at hospital discharge using the Functional Independence Measure - FIM (18 item scale, measure of dependence. The higher the score, the more independent the patient is in performing the task).

    Measured: 3 months

  8. Clinical Outcome Via MRS at 3 Months

    Assessment of functional status at hospital discharge using the modified Rankin Scale (MRS) (scale 0-6, measuring the degree of disability or dependence in the daily activities, where 0 is no symptoms and 6 is dead)

    Measured: 3 months

  9. Duration of Hospital Stay (ICU)

    Assessment of health resources used for the duration of Intensive Care Unit stay

    Measured: 1-3 months

  10. Number of Acute Hospital Admissions Post Discharge

    Assessment of health resources used for further hospital admissions following discharge.

    Measured: 3 months

Timeline

From the start of the study to its completion; the mark is today. Estimated dates are the sponsor’s plan.

  1. First posted9 Oct 2018
  2. Study start23 Sep 2019
  3. Primary completion15 Dec 2022
  4. Study completion15 Dec 2022

Resources

More details

For doctors and researchers: how the study is designed, who runs it, and its registry IDs.

Study design
Study type
Interventional
Phase
Phase N/A
Primary purpose
Treatment
Allocation
Not applicable
Intervention model
Single group
Model description
Single centre feasibility study of a complex intervention
Masking
None (open label)
Enrolment
5 participants (actual)
IDs, dates and publications
ClinicalTrials.gov ID
NCT03700125
Sponsor's protocol ID
012543
Other IDs
244748
Acronym
SUB30
Status last verified
Aug 2025
First submitted
2 Oct 2018
Last updated
8 Aug 2025
Data monitoring committee
Yes
FDA-regulated drug
No
FDA-regulated device
No
Individual data sharing
No: There is no plan to share study participant data

Publications

  • Singer B, Reynolds JC, Davies GE, Wrigley F, Whitbread M, Faulkner M, O'Brien B, Proudfoot AG, Mathur A, Evens T, Field J, Monk V, Finney SJ; International ECMO Network (ECMONet). Sub30: Protocol for the Sub30 feasibility study of a pre-hospital Extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) capable advanced resuscitation team at achieving blood flow within 30 min in patients with refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Resusc Plus. 2020 Dec;4:100029. doi: 10.1016/j.resplu.2020.100029. Epub 2020 Oct 8.

    PubMed 33403364
  • Singer B, Hla TTW, Abu-Habsa M, Davies G, Wrigley F, Faulkner M, Finney SJ. Sub30: Feasibility study of a pre-hospital extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) in patients with refractory out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in London, United Kingdom. Resuscitation. 2025 Feb;207:110455. doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2024.110455. Epub 2024 Dec 5.

    PubMed 39645021

Questions about this trial

What is this clinical trial studying?

A study testing ECMO resuscitation in people with Death, Sudden, Cardiac and Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest, run by Barts & The London NHS Trust at 2 sites in United Kingdom.

The full registered description is in the About this study section and the official record.

Who may be eligible to take part?

The sponsor lists 5 inclusion and 7 exclusion criteria. Eligibility is decided by the study team after screening, so read the full criteria and contact a listed site.

Is this clinical trial currently recruiting?

The record says: finished, as of the sponsor's last update on 8 Aug 2025. Status can change between updates, so confirm with the study contact before making plans.

Where is the study taking place?

The record lists 2 sites in United Kingdom. Whether a site is taking part right now should be confirmed with that site. See every site.

What are the possible benefits and risks?

They depend on the study and the treatment, and no study can promise a benefit. The study team explains the known risks during informed consent, before anyone joins; the record itself does not list them.

Are results available for this study?

Yes. Results are posted in the registry (first posted 7 Aug 2025). A summary is in the For doctors view, and the full results are on ClinicalTrials.gov.

How can a doctor refer a patient or contact the research team?

The record lists no contact. The official record names the sponsor, who can be asked directly. AzTrials does not enrol participants or take referrals.

What does the primary outcome measure?

Proportion of Patients Successfully Established With Pre-hospital ECPR (time frame: Within 30 minutes of collapse). It is what the study was designed to measure, not a finding.

Where can I read the original study information?

On the ClinicalTrials.gov record for NCT03700125, which also lists 2 linked publications.

Does a listing mean the treatment is approved or proven to work?

No. A listing means the study is registered. It does not show that the treatment is safe, works, or is approved by a regulator.

How often is this information updated?

AzTrials copies changed records from ClinicalTrials.gov every night and reloads the whole registry every week. The sponsor last updated this record on 8 Aug 2025.

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