Cerebral monitoring in a pig model of cardiac arrest with 48 h of intensive care

Background Neurological injury is the primary cause of death after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. There is a lack of studies investigating cerebral injury beyond the immediate post-resuscitation phase in a controlled cardiac arrest experimental setting. Methods The aim of this study was to investigate temporal changes in measures of cerebral injury and metabolism in a cardiac arrest pig model with clinically relevant post-cardiac arrest intensive care. A cardiac arrest group ( n = 11) underwent 7 min of no-flow and was compared with a sham group ( n = 6). Pigs underwent intensive care with 24 h of hypothermia at 33 °C. Blood markers of cerebral injury, cerebral microdialysis, and intracranial pressure (ICP) were measured. After 48 h, pigs underwent a cerebral MRI scan. Data are presented as median [25th; 75th percentiles]. Results Return of spontaneous circulation was achieved in 7/11 pigs. Time to ROSC was 4.4 min [4.2; 10.9]. Both NSE and NfL increased over time ( p