Hemoglobin concentration is associated with neurologic outcome after cardiac arrest in patients treated with targeted temperature management.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study was to test the hypothesis that hemoglobin concentration after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) is associated with neurologic outcome after cardiac arrest in patients treated with targeted temperature management.

METHODS: We studied consecutive adult patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated with targeted temperature management between January 2009 and December 2015. We quantified the association between post ROSC hemoglobin concentrations and good neurologic outcome (defined as Cerebral Performance Category of 1 and 2) at hospital discharge using multivariate logistic regression analysis.

RESULTS: A total of 246 subjects were ultimately included in this study. The mean age was 54 years (standard deviation, 17); 168 (68%) subjects were male. Eighty-seven (35%) subjects had a good neurologic outcome at hospital discharge. Hemoglobin concentrations were higher in the good outcome group than in the poor outcome group (14.4±2.0 vs. 12.8±2.5 g/dL, P<0.001). Multivariate logistic regression analysis showed that hemoglobin concentrations were associated with good neurologic outcome at hospital discharge after adjusting for other confounding factors (adjusted odds ratio, 1.186; 95% confidence interval, 1.008 to 1.395).

CONCLUSION: These results show that hemoglobin concentrations after ROSC are associated with neurologic outcome at hospital discharge. Future research to examine the association between hemoglobin levels and neurologic outcome after cardiac arrest is warranted.