Cardiac Arrest – An interdisciplinary scoping review of preclinical literature from 2020

Abstract

Introduction andObjective. The Interdisciplinary Cardiac Arrest Research Review (ICARE) group was formed in 2018 to conduct an annual search of peer-reviewed literature relevant to cardiac arrest. Now in its third year, the goals of the review are to illustrate best practices in research and help reduce compartmentalization of knowledge by disseminating relevant advances in the interdisciplinary world of cardiac arrest research. This iteration focuses on pharmacology and basic and translational science contributions. Review methods. A search was conducted of PubMed using keywords related to cardiac arrest. Titles and abstracts were screened for relevance with a focus on basic science and pharmacology. Screened manuscripts underwent standardized scoring of methodological quality and impact on the respective fields by reviewer teams lead by a subject matter expert editor. Articles scoring higher than 99 percentiles by category were selected for full critique. Systematic differences between editors' and reviewers' scores were assessed using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Brief description of the state of knowledge. The top scoring studies centered around attempts at improving neurologic outcome through improved blood flow and reduction of metabolic demand in order to reduce the impact of hypoxia during resuscitation on the brain. Summary. The sheer number of articles screened is a testament to the need for an accessible source highlighting highquality and important research. Several high-quality systematic reviews and original research studies have provided a physiologic basis for the treatment of cardiac arrest, and make the case for focused progression of several pharmacologic treatments to larger animal and human trials.