Treatment of arrhythmias evoked by accidental or therapeutic hypothermia and rewarming remains challenging. We aim to find an ECG-biomarker that can predict ventricular arrhythmias at temperatures occurring in therapeutic and accidental hypothermia.

These calculations have potential as novel biomarkers for predicting risk of hypothermia-induced cardiac arrest.

QTc/QRS or QRS/QTc could easily be tested in the clinic, and have potential to be implemented in guidelines to predict rescue collapse and ease further clinical research into pharmacological prevention of this condition.

Our findings apply both to victims of accidental hypothermia and to patients undergoing therapeutic hypothermia during surgery or after e.g. cardiac arrest, where a biomarker used for risk assessment would be of high value.

Evaluation of ECG-data from accidental and therapeutic hypothermia patients and experimental data on ECG and ventricular fibrillation (VF) threshold in hypothermic New Zealand White Rabbits.

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