Date: September 8th, 2021

Reference: Desch et al. The TOMAHAWK Investigators. Angiography after Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest without ST-Segment Elevation. NEJM 2021.

Guest Skeptic: Dr. Stephen Meigher is the EM Chief Resident training with the Jacobi and Montefiore Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program. He heads curriculum and conference for the academic year and is passionate about resident education on- and off-shift, from procedural to evidence-analytical. 

Dr. Kaushal Khambhati is also a fourth-year resident training with the Jacobi and Montefiore Emergency Medicine Residency Training Program.  He is interested and experienced in healthcare informatics, previously worked with ED-directed EMR design, and is involved in the New York City Health and Hospitals Healthcare Administration Scholars Program (HASP).

Five Rules of the SGEM Journal Club

Case: A 70-year-old woman is found unresponsive and apneic at home by her partner.  EMS arrives and finds the patient in monomorphic ventricular tachycardic (VT) cardiac arrest. She has a history of hypertension and non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus. The paramedics achieve return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) after CPR, advanced cardiac life support (ALCS), and Intubation.  She arrives in the emergency department (ED) with decreased level of consciousness and shock.  The EKG shows sinus tachycardia with nonspecific changes and no ST segment elevations, Q waves, or hyperacute T waves.  Her point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) shows appropriate-appearing global ejection fraction and no marked wall motion abnormalities.  Cardiology has been consulted and asks for a neurology consultation given her mental status.

Background: The American Heart Association estimates there are approximately 350,000 EMS-assessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs) in the United States per year. Half of these arrests are witnessed with the other half being un-witnessed. Many of these OHCAs are due to ventricular fibrillation or pulseless VT. Defibrillation is the treatment of choice in these cases but does not often result in sustained ROSC (Kudenchuk et al 2006).

Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is responsible for the majority (60%) of all OHCAs in patients. There is evidence that taking those patients with ROSC and EKG showing STEMI directly for angiography +/- angioplasty is associated with positive patient-oriented outcomes.

The AHA has a statement with recommendations based on the available data. They suggest to perform catheterization and reperfusion for post-arrest patients with ST-segment elevation, even if the patient is comatose  However, there is no consensus if this strategy should be employed in patients without ST-segment elevation (Yannopoulos et al, Circulation 2019).

The 2015 AHA Guidelines make the following recommendations:

* Coronary angiography should be performed emergently (rather than later in the hospital stay or not at all) for OHCA patients with suspected cardiac etiology of arrest and ST elevation on ECG (Class I, LOE B-NR).

* Emergency coronary angiography is reasonable for select (eg, electrically or hemodynamically unstable) adult patients who are comatose after OHCA of suspected cardiac origin but without ST elevation on ECG (Class IIa, LOE B-NR).

Lemke et al 2019 published a multicentre RCT done in the Netherlands looking at patients without ST se...