Patient selection: comatose survivor of a cardiac arrest
Endpoint: temperature < 34°C within 12 hours of ICU admission (measuring core body temperature with a bladder probe)
Factors associated with a failure of external cooling to achieve endpoint:
(1) early coronary angiography intervention (performed prior to ICU admission)
(2) higher body weight
(3) delay between collapse and the start of cooling
(4) a higher body temperature at the time of ICU admission
where:
• In the implementation breakpoints for body weight are > 90 kg and > 70 kg (see Figure 3).
• In the implementation the breakpoint for body temperature is > 36°C. The definition of hypothermia varies. In this paper hypothermia is < 34°C.
• The time from collapse to start of cooling was 1.8 to 3.3 hours in the successful group and 2.1 to 3.7 hours in the failure group (Table 1). > 3 hours will be used in the implementation.
Factors associated with success of external cooling:
(1) early hemodialysis (within first 12 hours)
(2) male
