• Pekka Jakkula, Matti Reinikainen, Johanna Hästbacka, Pekka Loisa, Marjaana Tiainen, Ville Pettilä, Jussi Toppila, Marika Lähde, Minna Bäcklund, Marjatta Okkonen, Stepani Bendel, Thomas Birkelund, Anni Pulkkinen, Jonna Heinonen, Tuukka Tikka, Markus B Skrifvars, and COMACARE study group.
• Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care and Pain Medicine, University of Helsinki and Helsinki University Hospital, Helsinki, Finland. pekka.jakkula@hus.fi.
• Intensive Care Med. 2018 Dec 1; 44 (12): 2112-2121.

PurposeWe assessed the effects of targeting low-normal or high-normal arterial carbon dioxide tension (PaCO2) and normoxia or moderate hyperoxia after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) on markers of cerebral and cardiac injury.MethodsUsing a 23 factorial design, we randomly assigned 123 patients resuscitated from OHCA to low-normal (4.5-4.7 kPa) or high-normal (5.8-6.0 kPa) PaCO2 and to normoxia (arterial oxygen tension [PaO2] 10-15 kPa) or moderate hyperoxia (PaO2 20-25 kPa) and to low-normal or high-normal mean arterial pressure during the first 36 h in the intensive care unit. Here we report the results of the low-normal vs. high-normal PaCO2 and normoxia vs. moderate hyperoxia comparisons. The primary endpoint was the serum concentration of neuron-specific enolase (NSE) 48 h after cardiac arrest. Secondary endpoints included S100B protein and cardiac troponin concentrations, continuous electroencephalography (EEG) and near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) results and neurologic outcome at 6 months.ResultsIn total 120 patients were included in the analyses. There was a clear separation in PaCO2 (p < 0.001) and PaO2 (p < 0.001) between the groups. The median (interquartile range) NSE concentration at 48 h was 18.8 µg/l (13.9-28.3 µg/l) in the low-normal PaCO2 group and 22.5 µg/l (14.2-34.9 µg/l) in the high-normal PaCO2 group, p = 0.400; and 22.3 µg/l (14.8-27.8 µg/l) in the normoxia group and 20.6 µg/l (14.2-34.9 µg/l) in the moderate hyperoxia group, p = 0.594). High-normal PaCO2 and moderate hyperoxia increased NIRS values. There were no differences in other secondary outcomes.ConclusionsBoth high-normal PaCO2 and moderate hyperoxia increased NIRS values, but the NSE concentration was unaffected.RegistrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02698917. Registered on January 26, 2016.

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