The Cardiovascular Research Unit of LIH’s Department of Population Health identified a new prognostic biomarker circulating in the blood which can determine neurological outcome and survival after cardiac arrest. The findings were published in May 2016 in an original research article in “JAMA Cardiology”, a new journal of the Journal of the American Medical Association network family of journals.

Cardiac arrest is a grave condition with high risk of death or with severe neurological sequelae. The prediction of outcome after resuscitation from cardiac arrest can allow tailoring healthcare to the individual patient, thus optimising costly resources in intensive care units to patients who would mostly benefit. However, current prediction tools have great limitations.

This study shows that microRNAs can be used to improve outcome prediction after cardiac arrest. These small RNA molecules circulate in the bloodstream, thus can be easily detected in patients’ blood samples. The finding by the authors that the brain-enriched microRNA-124-3p circulating in blood has the ability to be used as a prognostic tool represents a step forward towards personalised medicine.

Dr Yvan Devaux, Associate Head of the Cardiovascular Research Unit, comments on the findings: ‘Using miR-124-3p to predict neurological outcome and survival after cardiac arrest could increase the accuracy of prognostication and guide clinical decisions. Yet further studies are required to define how this microRNA can be brought to clinical application.’

This work is the result of a long-standing collaboration between the Cardiovascular Research Unit of LIH, the Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care of the Centre Hospitalier de Luxembourg (Dr Pascal Stammet), and the members of the international multicentre randomised clinical trial TTM (Target Temperature Management). Collaborators are members of the Cardiolinc network, coordinated by the Cardiovascular Research Unit (www.cardiolinc.org).

The study was supported by the Ministry of Higher Education and Research, and the Luxembourg National Research Fund (FNR).

Read also this interview with Dr Yvan Devaux featuring the publication on MedicalResearch.com.

Link to publication: http://cardiology.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleID=2523466