Hypothermia looks unhelpful for out-of-hospital PEA/asystole

Dumas et al prospectively observed 1145 consecutive victims of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest who survived to admission in France between 2000 and 2009. Among VT/VF patients, 65% got therapeutic hypothermia, while 60% of PEA/asystole patients did, with higher proportions receiving hypothermia later in the study period (86 and 73% respectively) . Most people in the PEA/asystole cohort had asystole (80%). Therapeutic hypothermia was strongly associated with improved neurologic outcome in VT/VF (44% in those cooled vs. 29% in those not, p<0.001), but seemed to make no difference in PEA/asystole (15 vs 17%). Circulation 2011;123:877-886.