![\"American](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/American-Heart-Association-new-logo-480x230.jpg\" "\\"American"){kind=logo}
Dallas, TX<\/strong> – Lowering the body\u2019s temperature of cardiac arrest patients with \u201cnon-shockable\u201d heart rhythms increases survival rates and brain function, according to new research in the American Heart Association\u2019s journal Circulation.<\/em><\/p>\nTherapeutic hypothermia is a medical treatment that intentionally lowers the body\u2019s temperature to protect the body following a period of insufficient blood flow due to such events as a cardiac arrest<\/a>, blood clot<\/a> or stroke<\/a>.<\/p>\n Human Brain Image. (American Heart Association)<\/p><\/div>\n Although previous studies have shown that therapeutic hypothermia<\/a> can improve survival and neurological function, it is more commonly recommended for patients with \u201cshockable\u201d rhythms such as ventricular fibrillation<\/a> \u2014 a condition where the lower chambers quiver and the heart can’t pump any blood, causing cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n Findings from a new study show that therapeutic hypothermia may also benefit comatose cardiac arrest patients with \u201cnon-shockable\u201d heart rhythms \u2013 those that won\u2019t respond to the defibrillation because there is no pulse or electrical activity in the heart.<\/p>\n Researchers examined data from 519 patients who had a cardiac arrest due to a non-shockable heart rhythm in the Penn Alliance for Therapeutic Hypothermia (PATH) registry between 2000 and 2013.<\/p>\n After adjusting for other factors, researchers found that those who received therapeutic hypothermia were 2.8 times more likely to survive after cardiac arrest and 3.5 times more likely to have better neurologic recovery compared to those who were not cooled.<\/p>\n Cardiac arrest occurs when the heart\u2019s electrical system malfunctions and the heart stops beating suddenly, causing blood to stop pumping to the body. Death can result in minutes without treatment.<\/p>\n \u201cNeurologic injury after cardiac arrest is devastating,\u201d said Sarah Perman, M.D., the study\u2019s lead author and assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado in Aurora. \u201cWe have one chance to give some form of neuroprotection, and that\u2019s immediately after the arrest.<\/p>\n \u201cOur resources right now are not extensive and our outcomes are still fairly grim. Therapeutic hypothermia is one therapy we do have in our arsenal, and if a patient is comatose after arrest, it\u2019s very important to consider applying this therapy, specifically in patients who are neurologically injured,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Despite established guidelines for the use of therapeutic hypothermia in patients who suffer cardiac arrest, adoption of this practice has been low, especially for in-hospital cardiac arrest patients and those who arrest with initial non-shockable rhythms.<\/p>\n [320left]\u201cThe perception that there is no benefit to patients who have an initial non-shockable rhythm has hindered application,\u201d Perman said.<\/p>\n However, the researchers encourage more research into the use of neuro-protective strategies for cardiac arrest patients with non-shockable rhythms such as the use of therapeutic hypothermia.<\/p>\n Co-authors are Anne Grossestreuer, M.S.; Douglas Wiebe, Ph.D.; Brendan Carr, M.D., M.S.H.P.; Benjamin Abella, M.D., M.Phil.; and David Gaieski, M.D. Author disclosures are on the manuscript.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" American Heart Association Rapid Access Journal Report Dallas, TX – Lowering the body\u2019s temperature of cardiac arrest patients with \u201cnon-shockable\u201d heart rhythms increases survival rates and brain function, according to new research in the American Heart Association\u2019s journal Circulation. Therapeutic hypothermia is a medical treatment that intentionally lowers the body\u2019s temperature to protect the body […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[86],"tags":[2538,7554,3833,6774,4030,1244,2543,10576,10577],"class_list":["post-10692","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-health","tag-american-heart-association","tag-blood-clot","tag-cardiac-arrest","tag-circulation","tag-dallas-tx","tag-hypothermia","tag-stroke","tag-therapeutic-hypothermia","tag-ventricular-fibrillation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10692","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10692"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10692\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10693,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10692\/revisions\/10693"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10692"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10692"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.paristn.net\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10692"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Human](\"http:\/\/www.clarksvilleonline.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/11\/Human-Brain-480x272.jpg\" "\\"Human")
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