Reducing body temperature saves brain functions in heart-attack patients

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service - if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read the FAQ at http://ift.tt/jcXqJW.

Wednesday 25 Nov 2015 - 12:47 Makkah mean time-13-2-1437 (Image from Shutterstock) Colorado, (IINA) - Researchers found that neurological functions can be protected in heart attack patients who remain in a coma with a "non-shockable" heartbeat by lowering their body temperature, UPI reported. Previous studies have shown patients with shockable heart rhythms can benefit from therapeutic hypothermia to protect the brain from lack of blood flow when it has been drastically reduced as a result of cardiac arrest. Researchers said, however, there had not been much research to support using the method with those whose heartbeats cannot be jump-started by ventricular fibrillation. The therapy involves applying cooling wraps to patients to drop their temperature to 91.4 degrees Fahrenheit (33 degrees Celsius), which reduces damage to the brain after a heart attack, although researchers are unsure why. "Neurologic injury after cardiac arrest is devastating", said Dr. Sarah Perman, an assistant professor of emergency medicine at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. "We have one chance to give some form of neuroprotection, and that's immediately after the arrest". The researchers identified 519 heart attack patients with non-shockable initial heart rhythms in the Penn Alliance for Therapeutic Hypothermia registry between 2000 and 2013. Patients who received therapeutic hypothermia were 2.8 times as likely to survive to discharge from the hospital and 3.5 times more likely to have positive neurological outcomes than people who did not have their temperatures lowered. Perman Said: "Our resources right now are not extensive and our outcomes are still fairly grim". She added: "Therapeutic hypothermia is one therapy we do have in our arsenal, and if a patient is comatose after arrest, it's very important to consider applying this therapy, specifically in patients who are neurologically injured". AG/IINA