Clinical Research Directory

Breakthrough Platform Trial for PCAS

The goal of this platform clinical trial is to evaluate whether specific post-cardiac arrest care strategies can improve neurological recovery and survival in adult patients who remain comatose after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) following cardiac arrest and require intensive care management. This multicenter cluster-randomized crossover platform trial (BPT-PCAS) evaluates post-cardiac arrest care strategies within a shared master protocol structure. Participating hospitals are randomized at the institutional level to predefined treatment strategies for fixed study periods and subsequently cross over to alternative strategies according to a predefined allocation schedule. The platform is designed to accommodate multiple independent intervention domains, each evaluating a different post-cardiac arrest care strategy under shared eligibility criteria, infrastructure, data management systems, and follow-up procedures. Participants may be enrolled in one or more active intervention domains according to platform availability and eligibility. Participants will receive the post-cardiac arrest care strategy assigned to their participating hospital during the study period while otherwise undergoing standard intensive care management according to local practice and study protocols. Participants will be followed for neurological outcomes including modified Rankin Scale (mRS), mortality, and safety outcomes at hospital discharge, 30 days, and 90 days after hospital admission.

Hypothermia Versus Normothermia After Extracorporeal Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation for Out-of-hospital Cardiac Arrest

The SAVE-J NEUROTHERM trial is a cluster randomized trial that evaluated and compared the mortality risk, neurological outcomes, and adverse events between patients who underwent hypothermia and those who underwent normothermia after extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Survival After Cardiac Arrest: How New Treatment Guidelines Changed Patient Outcomes.

The goal of this retrospective observational cohort study is to evaluate whether the progressive implementation of updated post-cardiac arrest care guidelines has improved survival and neurological recovery in adult patients admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU) after successful resuscitation from cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death worldwide. More than half of patients successfully resuscitated from cardiac arrest die before hospital discharge, largely due to a complex condition known as Post-Cardiac Arrest Syndrome (PCAS), which affects the brain, heart, and all major organ systems. Over the past decade, the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) have published updated post-resuscitation care guidelines in 2010, 2015, and 2021, introducing progressively refined treatment recommendations. However, no study has yet evaluated whether the local adoption of these evolving guidelines has translated into measurable improvements in patient outcomes over time. The main questions this study aims to answer are: * Has survival to ICU discharge improved across three successive guideline periods (2010, 2015, and 2021) in adult cardiac arrest patients admitted to the ICU? * Has neurological recovery at ICU and hospital discharge improved across the three guideline cohorts? * What is the local level of adherence to each set of guideline recommendations, and how does it relate to patient outcomes? * What is the impact of individual new interventions introduced by each guideline update on survival and organ function? * Do outcomes differ based on whether the cardiac arrest occurred outside or inside the hospital, or based on its underlying cause (cardiac, respiratory, metabolic, toxicological, or traumatic)? Researchers will compare three patient cohorts defined by the guideline period active at the time of ICU admission - Cohort A (January 2011-December 2015, treated according to 2010 guidelines), Cohort B (January 2016-March 2021, treated according to 2015 guidelines), and Cohort C (April 2021-April 2024, treated according to 2021 guidelines) - to determine whether progressive guideline implementation is associated with improved survival and neurological outcomes over time. Cohort A serves as the reference group. Participants in this study are adult patients (aged 18 years or older) who experienced cardiac arrest of any cause - whether in or out of hospital - were successfully resuscitated, and were subsequently admitted to ICU at the S. Chiara Hospital in Trento, Italy. Data are collected retrospectively from digitized medical records and cover clinical characteristics, cardiac arrest details, ICU treatments, laboratory and imaging findings, and patient outcomes including survival, length of stay, ventilator-free days, and neurological status at discharge (assessed using the Cerebral Performance Category scale). No interventions are performed as part of this study. Patient data are fully anonymized prior to analysis.

TNF-α Antagonists Mitigate Systemic Inflammatory Response After Cardiac Arrest.

The investigators assessed the effect of TNF-α antagonism within 6 hours of return of spontaneous circulation on 30-day mortality in patients who remained comatose after cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) following cardiac arrest . In addition, the investigators explored the role of this treatment in modulating the systemic inflammatory response and its potential impact on 90- and 180-day morbidity and mortality and neurological outcomes.

Lung-cOnservative Liquid VEntilation for the Induction of Ultra-Rapid COOLing After Cardiac Arrest

Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) affects over 356,000 individuals annually in the United States, with fewer than 10% surviving to hospital discharge, mirroring statistics from Europe. Post-cardiac arrest syndrome (PCAS), a condition causing multi-organ dysfunction, is a leading cause of mortality despite successful resuscitation efforts. Targeted temperature management (TTM) is recommended for comatose patients post-resuscitation to mitigate PCAS, but optimal temperature targets and cooling methods remain unclear. Experimental studies suggest that therapeutic hypothermia (32-34°C), induced rapidly after resuscitation, may provide significant clinical benefits. Total liquid ventilation (TLV) with breathable liquids has been proposed to achieve ultra-rapid therapeutic hypothermia (URTH). This approach uses the lungs as a heat exchanger to achieve ultra-rapid cooling while maintaining normal gas exchange. It enables a reduction in core body temperature to the hypothermic range (33.0 ± 0.5°C) within 45 minutes in relevant experimental models. The OverCool study is an open-label, single-arm, multi-centric pilot trial designed to evaluate the performance and safety of Vent2Cool, a medical device intended to induce ultra-rapid therapeutic hypothermia by TLV in resuscitated cardiac arrest patients. The primary objective is to demonstrate Vent2Cool's ability to achieve a target core temperature of 33.0 ± 0.5°C within 60 minutes from start of procedure in resuscitated patients admitted to the Intensive Care Unit following intra- or extra-hospital cardiac arrest. Secondary objectives include assessing procedural safety, cooling performance, feasibility in emergency settings, clinical outcomes, and the impact on biological markers.

Post-Surgery Extracorporeal Life Support

Extracorporeal Life Support (ECLS) may provide pulmonary and circulatory support for patients with acute heart failure refractory to conventional medical therapy. However, indications and effectiveness of ECLS engagement post-surgery remains a concern. The investigators sought to analyze indications, modality and outcomes of PS-ECLS, to identify predictors of early and midterm survival after PS-ECLS. The investigators have recorded prospectively, and analysed data of 209 consecutive PS-ECLS patients between January 2004 and December 2018. Demographic and clinical data before, during and after PS-ECLS were collected and their influence on hospital mortality and outcomes (early and midterm) will analyse. Multivariate analysis of pre PS-ECLS implantation factors (as age, female sex , insulin-dependent diabetes, pulmonary hypertension, STS, type of surgical procedure data, pre-ECLS blood lactate level) will be made for identify prognostic risk factors of in-hospital mortality. Overall survival will be analysed, at 6 months,1-year and 5-years, respectively and the factors influencing mild/term outcome will be investigated.