The International Cardiac Arrest Registry (INTCAR) is a worldwide registry of post-resuscitation cardiac arrest care. Its purpose is to provide participating sites with quality improvement data. It also functions as a research registry, facilitating participation in specialized research groups. The members of INTCAR are hospitals and investigators dedicated to improving the quality of survival after cardiac arrest.

Areas of INTCAR Research

  • Therapeutic temperature management.

  • Post-resuscitation ICU care.

  • Cardiac management of cardiac arrest survivors.

  • Quality of life after cardiac arrest.

  • Electroencephalography, neuroimaging, and prognostication.

  • Novel therapies to protect the heart and brain after resuscitation.

Purpose

The INTCAR core dataset is designed to be fully de-identified and quality-oriented.

The research subgroups are intended to provide more detailed information for scientific purposes.

The core dataset…

Includes Utstein criteria and quality metrics around post-resuscitation cardiac arrest care.

Follows the patient experience from the arrest event for up to six months, to characterize their recovery and quality of life.

Belongs to the INTCAR community.

Helps to define the evolving standard of care after cardiac arrest, and to evaluate the effectiveness of new therapies.

Research satellite groups…

May become a focus for investigators with similar interests, or even clinical trials groups.

Develop their own leadership and rules.

Own their datasets.

Are encouraged to conduct trials.

Organizational Structure

The International Cardiac Arrest Registry is directed by a Steering Group, comprised of the INTCAR administrators, representatives from high-enrolling European and American sites, representatives from the research groups (satellite surveys), and elected ad-hoc members from lower-enrolling sites.

It is the responsibility of the Steering Group to ensure the quality of the data entered into the registry, and to supervise and direct all data queries, analyses, and publications. A formal publication policy exists to allow all participating sites to directly participate in the data analysis and publication process.

Types of Memberships

Participating Centers

Publications

Seder DB, Patel N, McPherson J, McMullan P, Kern KB, Unger B, et al. Geriatric experience following cardiac arrest at six interventional cardiology centers in the United States 2006-2011: interplay of age, do-not-resuscitate order, and outcomes. Critical care medicine. 2014;42(2):289-95.

Dankiewicz J, Schmidbauer S, Nielsen N, Kern KB, Mooney MR, Stammet P, et al. Safety, feasibility, and outcomes of induced hypothermia therapy following in-hospital cardiac arrest-evaluation of a large prospective registry*. Critical care medicine. 2014;42(12):2537-45.

Gagnon DJ, Nielsen N, Fraser GL, Riker RR, Dziodzio J, Sunde K, et al. Prophylactic antibiotics are associated with a lower incidence of pneumonia in cardiac arrest survivors treated with targeted temperature management. Resuscitation. 2015;92:154-9.

Karlsson V, Dankiewicz J, Nielsen N, Kern KB, Mooney MR, Riker RR, et al. Association of gender to outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest–a report from the International Cardiac Arrest Registry. Critical care (London, England). 2015;19:182.

Kern KB, Lotun K, Patel N, Mooney MR, Hollenbeck RD, McPherson JA, et al. Outcomes of Comatose Cardiac Arrest Survivors With and Without ST-Segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction: Importance of Coronary Angiography. JACC Cardiovascular interventions. 2015;8(8):1031-40.

Seder DB, Sunde K, Rubertsson S, Mooney M, Stammet P, Riker RR, et al. Neurologic outcomes and postresuscitation care of patients with myoclonus following cardiac arrest. Critical care medicine. 2015;43(5):965-72.

Hollenbeck RD, McPherson JA, Mooney MR, Unger BT, Patel NC, McMullan PW, Jr., et al. Early cardiac catheterization is associated with improved survival in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest without STEMI. Resuscitation. 2014;85(1):88-95.

Sendelbach S, Hearst MO, Johnson PJ, Unger BT, Mooney MR. Effects of variation in temperature management on cerebral performance category scores in patients who received therapeutic hypothermia post cardiac arrest. Resuscitation. 2012;83(7):829-34.

History

In 2002, two independent prospective clinical trials suggested that early treatment with induced hypothermia reduces death and disability in survivors out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (NEJM 2002 346(8): 549-556, 557-563).

  • The effects of temperature management at different targets.

  • The role of cardiac catheterization and hemodynamic support following emergency stabilization.

  • The full spectrum of adverse events associated with therapy.

  • The importance of various elements of post-resuscitation care including oxygen and carbon dioxide tension, blood pressure, blood glucose, and other biochemical and metabolic factors.

  • The incidence, type, and significance of epileptiform activity.

  • The most effective and safest techniques for cooling, maintaining TTM, and rewarming.

  • The post-hypothermia prognostication landscape.

  • The utility and interpretation of neuroimaging and biomarkers to determine the severity of brain injury.

  • The role of neurocognitive evaluation.

6th International Hypothermia and Temperature Management Symposium

September 12 – 14, 2016

INTCAR Administrators

Niklas Nielsen, MD
INTCAR founder and administrator from Europe

David Seder, MD
INTCAR administrator for the Americas

Steering Group

The Steering Group will meet at least annually in the United States and Europe. Remote video access will be available for all Steering Group meetings to facilitate involvement by all members.

Niklas Nielsen, Administrator

David B. Seder, Administrator

Hans Friberg – Lund University, Sweden

Richard Riker, Maine Medical Center, US

Mike Mooney, Minneapolis Heart Institute, US

Karl Kern, Cardiology Group Representative & University of Arizona, US

Felilx Valsson, Landspitali University Hospital, Iceland

Kjetil Sunde, Oslo University Hospital, Norway

Sten Rubertsson, Uppsala University Hospital, Sweden

Pascal Stammet, Centre de Hospitalier de Luxembourg

Sachin Agarwal, Columbia University, US

Karen Hirsch, Stanford University, US

Compliance

All data from registered patients must be submitted without identifiers. Each reporting unit will receive a personal unit-number that, through linkage to a serial number, will provide a unique identification number to each registered patient. A local database, with personal identification, should be kept securely at each reporting unit to enable follow-up contact, and the local IRB must be aware of this information. The local database is the property of each reporting unit, involving the same confidentiality that applies to other confidential medical records.