Severe deoxyribonucleic acid damage after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in successfully resuscitated humans
Abstract
Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a highly stressful event with a transient common ischaemic - reperfusion injury in successfully resuscitated victims. Survival rate of patients resuscitated from OHCA remains too low (10%) [1].
It has been shown that stress induces the most severe form of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) damage - double strand breaks (DSBs) [2], [3], [4] and [5]. The reliable marker of DNA DSB damage, respectively its reparation is the phosphorylated histone H2AX (γH2AX), which reaches maximum levels in peripheral blood lymphocytes between 10 and 60 min following cell exposure [3], [4], [5], [6], [7] and [8].
The effect of OHCA on DNA integrity has not been described. Thus the aim of the authors was to describe in patients successfully resuscitated from OHCA the occurrence of DNA DSB damage and evaluate γH2AX short-term prognostic (30-day survival) role.