Resuscitation
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Mild to moderate therapeutic hypothermia (TH) has been shown to improve survival and neurological outcome in patients resuscitated from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) with ventricular fibrillation (VF) as the presenting rhythm. This approach entails the management of physiological variables which fall outside the realm of conventional critical cardiac care. Management of serum potassium fluxes remains pivotal in the avoidance of lethal ventricular arrhythmia. ⋯ Therapeutic hypothermia is associated with a significant decline in serum potassium during cooling. Hypothermic core temperatures do not appear to protect against ventricular arrhythmia in the context of severe hypokalemia and cautious supplementation to maintain potassium at 3.0 mmol l(-1) appears to be both safe and effective.
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Pharmacotherapy and hospital admissions before out-of-hospital cardiac arrest: a nationwide study.
For out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) to be predicted and prevented, it is imperative the healthcare system has access to those vulnerable before the event occurs. We aimed to determine the extent of contact to the healthcare system before OHCA. ⋯ Contrary to general belief, the majority of OHCA patients are in contact with the healthcare system shortly before OHCA.
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Deterioration of myocardial injury due to dexmedetomidine administration after myocardial ischaemia.
Dexmedetomidine is a highly selective α-2 adrenergic agonist used perioperatively. Dexmedetomidine's cardioprotective effect after myocardial ischaemia remains unknown. In this study, we administered dexmedetomidine after ischaemia to investigate its ability to protect the cardiac muscle from ischaemia-reperfusion injury in isolated rat hearts. ⋯ Dexmedetomidine administration does not influence haemodynamics or CF, but does increase the cardiac infarct size. α-2 Adrenergic stimulation may induce this mechanism.
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It is unclear what effect therapeutic hypothermia may have on renal function, because its effect has so far been primarily evaluated in settings in which there may be possible confounding perturbations in cardiovascular and renal physiology, such deep intraoperative hypothermia, general anesthesia, and post-cardiac arrest. We sought to determine if therapeutic hypothermia affects renal function in awake patients with normal renal function who were enrolled into a clinical trial of hypothermia plus intravenous thrombolysis for acute ischemic stroke. ⋯ Inducing hypothermia in patients with relatively unperturbed renal physiology results in a decrease in urine output that is linearly correlated with the decrease in core temperature. This has important implications for fluid management in patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia.
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Previous data indicate that 100% O(2) ventilation during early reperfusion after cardiac arrest (CA) and cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) increases neuronal death. However, current guidelines encourage the use of 100% O(2) during resuscitation and for an undefined period thereafter. We retrospectively analyzed data from a porcine CA model and hypothesized that prolonged hyperoxic reperfusion would be associated with increased neurohistopathological damage and impaired neurological recovery. ⋯ In this retrospective analysis prolonged hyperoxia after CA aggravated necrotic brain damage and perivascular inflammation in the striatum of pigs.