• Roberto Latini, Serge Masson, Francesca Fumagalli, Ilaria Russo, Lidia Staszewsky, Simona Tantillo, Davide Danilo Zani, Valentina Locatelli, Marcella De Maglie, Deborah Novelli, Tarcisio Vago, Angelo Belloli, Mauro Di Giancamillo, and Eugenio Scanziani.
• *IRCCS-Istituto di Ricerche Farmacologiche "Mario Negri," Milan; †Ospedale Maggiore, Bologna; ‡Polo Veterinario di Lodi, §University of Milan, ∥Fondazione Filarete, and ¶Endocrininology Laboratory, Luigi Sacco Hospital, Milan, Italy; and **Department of Anesthesia and Intensive Care, Aachen University, Germany.
• Shock. 2014 Jan 1;41(1):72-8.

IntroductionEffects of postresuscitation treatment with argon on neurologic recovery were investigated in a porcine model of cardiac arrest (CA) with an underlying acute myocardial infarction.MethodsThe left anterior descending coronary artery was occluded in 12 pigs, and CA was induced. After 8 min of untreated CA, cardiopulmonary resuscitation was performed for 5 min before defibrillation. Following resuscitation, animals were subjected to 4-h ventilation with 70% argon/30% oxygen or 70% nitrogen/30% oxygen. Myocardial function was echocardiographically assessed, and serum neuron-specific enolase was measured. Animals were observed up to 72 h for assessment of survival and neurologic recovery.ResultsAll the animals were resuscitated and survived for 72 h, except for a control pig. Ventilation with argon did not have any detrimental effects on hemodynamics and respiratory gas exchange. All the six argon-treated animals had a fast and complete 72-h neurologic recovery, in contrast to only two of the six controls (P < 0.05). Seventy-two-hour neurologic alertness score and neurologic deficit score were, respectively, 100 and 0 in the argon group and 79 and 29 in the control one (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05). Significantly lower increases in serum neuron-specific enolase (12% vs. 234%) and minimal histological brain injury (neuronal degeneration: 0 vs. 1) were also observed in argon-treated animals, in comparison to controls.ConclusionsIn this model, postresuscitation treatment with argon allowed for a faster and complete neurologic recovery, without detrimental effects on hemodynamics and respiratory gas exchanges.

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