Cardiac Arrest & Therapeutic Hypothermia


Characterizing the Degrees of Neurological Injuries to the Brain

Cardiac Arrest (CA) is a leading cause of death in the United States and the world. It causes 460,000 sudden cardiac deaths in the U.S. annually and 17 million worldwide. Despite the advances in resuscitation techniques, the survival rate is still very low: only two to nine percent for patients following out-of-hospital arrest.

Poor functional recovery outcomes, such as coma, are prevalent among survivors, bringing a heavy load to the whole society. Neurological complications are the leading cause of mortality. Hypothermia has been proven to improve the neurological recovery outcomes from CA and early reperfusion in both animal models and preliminary human clinical trials. Yet, hypothermia is still underused now.

Our group focuses on novel animal protocol design and new algorithm development for characterizing the degrees of neurological injuries to the brain and the effect of therapeutic hypothermia on the post-cardiac-arrest resuscitation.

  • Electroencephalogram (EEG)

  • Evoked Potential (EP)

  • Spikes (cortical and from other brain structures)

Our globally ischemic CA experiments include models with different durations of CA (5-min, 7-min and 9-min). On the other hand, we also compare the different effects of conventional hypothermia and immediate hypothermia on post-resuscitation neurological recovery.


Awards and Recognition

  • Finalist of Student Paper Competition Award at the 35th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society (IEEE EMBC), 2013 (as sponsor Faculty and corresponding author)

  • Highlight as a significant advance based on animal research at the 65th American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting, 2013

  • Best Presentation Winner for Clinicians in the 2nd Annual Safer Symposium in Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, 2010

  • Finalist of Research Citation Award of the Society of Critical Care Medicine, 2008

  • American Heart Association (AHA) CPCC Junior Investigator travel award, 2007

  • Selected Presentation for the Press Book of The 36th Annual Meeting of the Society for Neuroscience, 2006


Guest Editor

  • International Journal of Molecular Sciences (Impact Factor – 2.464, 2012): Special issue on Neurological Injuries’ Monitoring, Tracking and Treatment 


Publications


Extramural Funding

NIH/NHLBI 5 RO1 HL118084
X Jia (PI)
7/1/13 - 3/30/18
Brain Monitoring and Therapeutic Hypothermia after Cardiac Arrest

American Heart Association
09SDG2110140
X Jia (PI) 7/1/2009-6/30/2013 NCE 6/30/2014
Quantitative Somatosensory Evoked Potential: Novel approach to Monitoring Neurologic Recovery Post Cardiac Arrest

NIH/NHLBI 5 RO1 HL071568
Thakor NV (PI)
3/15/2009-2/28/2014
Title: Consequences of Cardiac Arrest: Brain Injury
Role: Co-Investigator