Inducibility of ventricular fibrillation during mild therapeutic hypothermia: electrophysiological study in a swine model (Journal of Translational Medicine)

IntroductionMild therapeutic hypothermia (MTH) is being used after cardiac arrest for its expected improvement in neurological outcome. Safety of MTH concerning inducibility of malignant arrhythmias has not been satisfactorily demonstrated. This study compares inducibility of ventricular fibrillation (VF) before and after induction of MTH in a whole body swine model and evaluates possible interaction with changing potassium plasma levels. Methods: The extracorporeal cooling was introduced in fully anesthetized swine (n = 6) to provide MTH. Inducibility of VF was studied by programmed ventricular stimulation three times in each animal under the following: during normothermia (NT), after reaching the core temperature of 32°C (HT) and after another 60 minutes of stable hypothermia (HT60). Inducibility of VF, effective refractory period of the ventricles (ERP), QTc interval and potassium plasma levels were measured. Results: Starting at normothermia of 38.7 (IQR 38.2; 39.8) °C, HT was achieved within 54 (39; 59) minutes and the core temperature was further maintained constant. Overall, the inducibility of VF was 100% (18/18 attempts) at NT, 83% (15/18) after reaching HT (P = 0.23) and 39% (7/18) at HT60 (P = 0.0001) using the same protocol. Similarly, ERP prolonged from 140 (130; 150) ms at NT to 206 (190; 220) ms when reaching HT (P