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RARITAN, N.J., March 21, 2012 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ — Veridex, LLC today announced the publication of a new, investigational study published this week in Science Translational Medicine that lays the foundation for research that may potentially result in a blood test to determine imminent risk of heart attack within high-risk populations. The study, “Characterization of Circulating Endothelial Cells in Acute Myeloid Infarction,” was led by Eric J. Topol, M.D., director of the Scripps Translational Science Institute, in collaboration with researchers at Veridex and other hospitals in Southern California.

The study used the Veridex CellSearch® technology to capture circulating endothelial cells (CECs) in 50 myocardial infarction (MI) patients. These cells were further interrogated for protein markers to confirm their endothelial origin by the team at Ortho Clinical Diagnostics, Inc. It was discovered that MI patients had more than 400 percent more CECs compared to blood samples obtained from the control group of 22 healthy volunteers. Importantly, CECs in the MI patient group had distinct physical abnormalities, such as cell shape and an increased likelihood of having multiple nuclei.

“One person dies every minute as a result of a heart attack here in the U.S.,” said Topol. “This initial research could lay the groundwork for a test to identify which individuals are at particular risk of an imminent heart attack.”

“Our focus is on the CECs,” noted Mark C. Connelly, Ph.D., Director, Cellular Research, Veridex and co-author of the study. “The difference in the shape and high incidence of multiple nuclei in these cells suggest they may possess a unique gene expression profile. The next phase of our research will test this hypothesis and, if it is true, attempt to determine its suitability to detect early warning signs such as subclinical plaque rupture in high-risk patients.”

SOURCE Veridex, LLC

New Rochelle, NY,  January 4, 2012 – Therapeutic hypothermia has been proven to reduce mortality and improve neurologic outcomes after a heart attack, yet it was rarely used in a sample of more than 26,000 patients, according to a study published in Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

Therapeutic hyperthermia was used in only 0.35% of cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in this study. The authors, Pratik Patel, Sayona John, Rajeev Garg, Richard Temes, Thomas Bleck, and Shyam Prabhakaran, from Rush University Medical Center, Chicago, IL, state that “Continued education, dissemination of evidence-based guidelines to community hospitals, the development of and preferential transport of patients to designated cardiac arrest treatment centers, and enhanced reimbursement may help increase its application in clinical practice.” The article is entitled “Therapeutic Hypothermia After Cardiac Arrest is Underutilized in the United States.”

“This informative study underscores the need to more efficiently target and treat cardiac arrest patients that would benefit from hypothermic therapy. The fact that therapeutic hypothermia is underutilized at U.S. hospitals emphasizes the need to identify and address barriers to this evidence-based therapy,” says W. Dalton Dietrich, PhD, Editor-in-Chief of the Journal and Kinetic Concepts Distinguished Chair in Neurosurgery, Professor of Neurological Surgery, Neurology and Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.

New Rochelle, NY, July 29, 2011–Intravenous delivery of cold fluids to reduce body temperature quickly after a heart attack and improve neurologic outcomes may not be as effective in children as it is in adults, according to a study reported in Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management, a peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. The article is available free online at www.liebertpub.com/ther

In adults, therapeutic hypothermia to minimize neurological complications caused by cardiac arrest can be achieved by rapidly infusing cold (4oC) intravenous fluid. However, this might not be the optimal approach in children. Alexis Topjian, Michael Hamid, Larissa Hutchins, and Vinay Nadkarni, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, studied the effect of the infusion rate on the temperature of the cold IV fluid in three simulated pediatric patients of different weights. They describe the study design and their results in the article entitled, “Can a Cold (4oC) IV Fluid Bolus to Induce Therapeutic Hypothermia Really Deliver 4oC to Children?”

“This is an important and timely contribution because it reinforces the point that children are not just small people but require specialized treatment strategies to target pediatric CNS injury,” says Editor-in-Chief W. Dalton Dietrich, PhD, Kinetic Concepts Distinguished Chair in Neurosurgery, Professor of Neurological Surgery, Neurology and Cell Biology and Anatomy, University of Miami Leonard M. Miller School of Medicine.

Oxford, July 26, 2011 – Adrenaline has kept its place in cardiac arrest guidelines despite limited evidence for or against its use. The PACA (Placebo versus Adrenaline versus Cardiac Arrest) study by Jacobs and colleagues, soon to be published in Resuscitation, the official journal of the European Resuscitation Council, provides the best evidence to date supporting the use of adrenaline to treat cardiac arrest.

In this single-centre double blind study, 601 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims were randomized to receive either placebo (0.9% sodium chloride) or adrenaline during advanced life support. Data available from 534 patients (262 placebo vs. 272 adrenaline) showed no difference in the primary end study point, survival to hospital discharge, but did show that a spontaneous circulation was restored (in other words the heart was ‘restarted’) three times more commonly with adrenaline (23.5%) than with saline placebo (8.4%).

Professor Jacobs commented, “Our study highlights the significant challenges in undertaking randomized trials in cardiac arrest, particularly when it involves accepted but unproven therapy. Although we were unable to demonstrate that adrenaline improved the chance of surviving to hospital discharge, adrenaline did increase the likelihood of restoring circulation following cardiac arrest.”

Editor-in-Chief of Resuscitation, Dr Jerry Nolan said, “The authors are to be congratulated for undertaking this important study despite the very challenging factors that are inevitable in the out-of-hospital environment. This is the first placebo controlled trial in human cardiac arrest that has shown short term survival benefit for adrenaline.”

The study, “Effect of Adrenaline on Survival in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Trial” by Ian G. Jacobs, Judith C, Finn, George A, Jelinek, Harry F, Oxer and Peter L, Thompson can be found in Resuscitation (2011) doi: 10.1016/j.resuscitation.2011.06.029, published by Elsevier.

PITTSBURGH, July 11 – A new method for scoring the severity of illness for patients after cardiac arrest may help to predict their outcomes, according to researchers at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Most importantly, their findings, published in the early online version of Resuscitation, also show that none of the severity categories rules out the potential for a patient’s recovery.

“Traditionally, we have used historical or event-related information, such as initial cardiac rhythm or whether someone witnessed the collapse, to categorize these patients upon arrival at the hospital,” said Jon C. Rittenberger, M.D., lead author and assistant professor of emergency medicine. “Unfortunately, more than 10 percent of the time, such information is unavailable, which limits our ability to tailor therapies, counsel families about prognosis or select patients for clinical trials.”

Cardiac arrest is the most common cause of death in North America, resulting in approximately 350,000 deaths each year.

The researchers looked at retrospective data for more than 450 post-cardiac arrest patients treated at UPMC Presbyterian between January 2005 and December 2009. Both in-hospital and out-of-hospital cardiac arrests were included. In 2007, the hospital implemented a multi-disciplinary post-cardiac arrest care plan, including therapeutic hypothermia, or cooling of patients to minimize brain damage.

Four distinct categories of illness severity were identified based on a combination of neurological and cardiopulmonary dysfunction during the first few hours after restoration of a patient’s spontaneous circulation. The researchers looked at rates of survival, neurologic outcomes and development of multiple organ failure for patients in each category, and found wide variations among the groups.

“Now, objective data available to the clinician at the bedside during initial evaluation may provide a better way of predicting outcomes and guiding the decisions of families and clinicians. We found that the category of illness severity had a stronger association with survival and good outcomes than did such historically used factors as initial rhythm of arrest or where it happened,” said Dr. Rittenberger. “Our results indicate that illness severity should be carefully measured and accounted for in future studies of therapies for these patients.”

Co-authors of the study include Samuel A. Tisherman, M.D., Margo B. Holm, Ph.D., Francis X. Guyette, M.D., M.P.H., and Clifton W. Callaway, M.D., Ph.D., all of the University of Pittsburgh.

The research was supported by a grant from the National Center for Research Resources. Dr. Rittenberger is also supported by an unrestricted grant from the National Association of EMS Physicians/Zoll EMS Resuscitation Research Fellowship.

New Rochelle, NY, April 6, 2011 – The successful use and evaluation of therapeutic hypothermia to improve survival and reduce the risk of neurological consequences following an out-of-hospital heart attack are explored in the premier issue of Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management, a new quarterly peer-reviewed journal published by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.

According to the review article on “The Use of Hypothermia Therapy in Cardiac Arrest Survivors,” therapeutic hypothermia appears to reduce the risk of brain injury in the approximately 400,000 people who suffer an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in the U.S. each year. The authors, Sanjeev Nair and Justin Lundbye, Hartford Hospital (CT) and University of Connecticut School of Medicine, in Farmington, discuss when therapeutic hypothermia should and should not be used, various methods of reducing body temperature, and the different phases of hypothermia.