Even a little cooling helps after cardiac arrestMay 18, 2006As many as 400,000 people in North America suffer sudden cardiac arrest. Only 30% have their hearts restarted, and only about 6% survive to hospital discharge. Once the heart is restarted, a significant factor for subsequent death is brain injury. In a paper presented at the 2006 Society for Academic Emergency Medicine Annual Meeting, May 18-21, in San Francisco, investigators from the University of Pittsburgh discussed the results of an animal model study to evaluate whether the simpler procedure might provide equivalent benefit. Cooling a person by 3-4 °C during the first day after resuscitation has been demonstrated to improve the odds of a good recovery, but few patients receive this therapy. There may be fear of complications or logistical difficulties in carrying out the therapy in most hospitals. Practically speaking, cooling a person by 2 °C is more manageable than cooling by 4 °C. By using rats that had been anesthetized and subjected to cardiac arrest, the severity and duration of brain injury observed in humans was replicated. The rats were resuscitated with chest compression and epinephrine, and cranial temperatures were monitored and controlled at 37 °C (normal), 35 °C (2 °C cooling) and 33 °C (4 °C cooling). Neurological scores were measured daily, and at the end of 14 days, their brains were examined for damage. Rats cooled to 33 °C did best, as measured by neurological scores, median days to return to normal, and neuron density in the hippocampus. The 35°C group had somewhat lower results while the normal group had the worst outcomes. Overall, the benefit of cooling only 2 °C was similar to 4 °C cooling. These results suggest that even modest cooling of the brain might have significant benefit to humans who have been resuscitated after cardiac arrest. Society for Academic Emergency Medicine |
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| Related Cardiac Arrest Current Events and Cardiac Arrest News Articles Effect of real-time CPR feedback reported at resuscitation science symposium Emergency medical service (EMS) providers in the United States assess an estimated 350,000 cardiac arrests each year. Only 5 to 10 percent of people who have sudden cardiac arrest survive. Better quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) provided by prehospital EMS providers may be associated with better patient outcome. Young athletes need dual screening tests for heart defects, study suggests To best detect early signs of life-threatening heart defects in young athletes, screening programs should include both popular diagnostic tests, not just one of them, according to new research from heart experts at Johns Hopkins. Continuous chest compression-CPR improved cardiac arrest survival in Arizona The chance of surviving a cardiac arrest outside a hospital was found to be twice as high when bystanders performed continuous chest compressions without mouth-to-mouth breathing than when bystanders performed standard CPR. Less than 1 in 3 Toronto bystanders who witness a cardiac arrest try to help: Study Researchers at St. Michael's Hospital working in conjunction with EMS services, paramedics and fire services across Ontario found that a bystander who attempts cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can quadruple the survival rate to over 50 per cent. NHLBI stops enrollment in study on resuscitation methods for cardiac arrest Enrollment has ended early in a large, multicenter clinical trial comparing two distinct resuscitation strategies delivered by emergency medical service (EMS) providers to increase blood flow during cardiac arrest. New class of molecules may help prevent fatal complication in patients with kidney disease Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine have made an important discovery about why potassium builds up to dangerous levels in the bloodstream, a relatively common medical problem that affects about eight percent of hospitalized patients. Researchers develop innovative imaging system to study sudden cardiac arrest A research team at Vanderbilt University has developed an innovative optical system to simultaneously image electrical activity and metabolic properties in the same region of a heart, to study the complex mechanisms that lead to sudden cardiac arrest. New data: Hospital imaging centers poised to pull back, hitting patients hardest in rural areas Survivors and patients with cancers and heart disease, along with patient advocate organizations and physicians, today urged policymakers to enhance early diagnosis of deadly diseases by preserving access to advanced imaging, such as MRI and CT scans, in final health care reform legislation. Gene mingling increases sudden death risk A multi-national research team has discovered that two genetic factors converge to increase the risk of sudden cardiac death. Coronary imaging techniques helps to identify plaques likely to cause heart attacks Late-breaking results from the PROSPECT clinical trial shed new light on the types of vulnerable plaque that are most likely to cause sudden, unexpected adverse cardiac events, and on the ability to identify them through imaging techniques before they occur. More Cardiac Arrest Current Events and Cardiac Arrest News Articles |
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