Experts Urge Focus on Resuscitation Research

A report from US resuscitation experts states that increased research, education, and funding can improve the treatment of people who experience cardiac arrest. In the United States alone, more than 680 people die each day due to cardiac arrest. The new report was published in the May 28, 2002, issue of Circulation.

Resuscitation research focuses on conditions that initiate, mediate, and result when all of the body's organs are deprived of oxygen. Better methods are needed to lower the risk of injury and restore cardiopulmonary and cerebral function. To accomplish this, the experts recommended a number of steps. These are to develop a national center for resuscitation research, implement programs to support that research, establish a system to promote and coordinate research, establish databases of clinical cases, prioritize new resuscitation strategies, and promote professional and public education and training.

One research priority is hibernation physiology, whereby animals can tolerate ischemia and reperfusion without injury. Animal studies have shown that the heart rate decreases to as little as 5% of normal during hibernation, yet the heart is not damaged during this time. Other research priorities include existing and proposed therapies for cardiac arrest, investigating the potential of hypothermia and controlled reperfusion, developing better experimental models to study cardiac arrest, and developing sensors to detect blood flow restrictions.

"We have an opportunity to prioritize a science that will lead immediately, I think, to saving many, many lives, not only in the United States but worldwide,” said Dr. Lance Becker, lead author of the report and a professor of clinical medicine in the emergency medicine section of the University of Chicago (Il, USA). "We are on the brink of major scientific progress in the field of resuscitation. Investment at this critical point in time will lead to important advances.”




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