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Cooling Patients During Heart Attack May Prove Beneficial:
Midwest Heart Specialists Among First in Nation to Trial New Research

November 20, 2001
Elmhurst, IL
A simple concept has become the basis of a stunning new research trial launched by Midwest Heart Specialists at Elmhurst Memorial Hospital.

Cardiologists at Midwest Heart are investigating the benefits of inducing hypothermia and thus, decreasing the overall need for oxygen in patients who are having a heart attack.

“Our work with the COOL-MI Trial could prove that slowing the metabolic rate or requirements of the heart could ultimately reduce the overall damage to the heart muscle,” said Louis McKeever, MD, cardiologist with Midwest Heart Specialists. “The concept of cooling body temperature to decrease metabolic needs of the heart has been used safely for years in open-heart surgeries.”

Soon after a patient experiencing a heart attack presents to the emergency room, the cardiologist’s goal is to reperfuse or re-open closed arteries, so that oxygenated blood can flow through the entire heart again. For many cardiologists, including Midwest Heart Specialists, taking patients rapidly from the Emergency Room to the Cardiac Cath Lab for life-saving interventions, is a standard procedure.

Cool saline is circulated through a catheter inserted into the patient’s femoral vein which over a 45 minute period reduces body temperature to a moderate degree (33 degrees Celsius). During this time, interventional cardiologists can focus on reperfusion, while simultaneously decreasing overall damage to the heart muscle.

“The cardiologists within Midwest Heart Specialists were very interested in pursuing this trial,” notes Dr. McKeever. “Despite our technologies in the cath lab to re-open closed arteries, patients who survived heart attacks could still suffer disabling conditions. These efforts to slow down the heart’s need for oxygen may prove to decrease damage to the heart during the actual attack.

While heart attacks and related cardiovascular diseases account for nearly one million deaths in the United States, more than 7 million Americans alive today have a history of heart attack. These patients can experience varying degrees of disability. Depending on the location of the damaged heart muscle, weakened pumping ability may occur, development of scar tissue or bulging heart muscle may develop or in some cases heart valves may fail to close completely.

“Heart attacks and coronary artery disease are responsible for 50 to 60 percent of the five million congestive heart failure cases in America,” explained Michael Brottman, MD, cardiologist with Midwest Heart Specialists. “Additionally, tens of thousands of post heart attack patients will develop arrhythmias from scarring of the heart muscle. Reducing the incidence of these two conditions alone could translate into millions of dollars of savings, as well as increasing the quality of life for hundreds of thousands of heart-attack survivors.”

Midwest Heart Specialists is the only practice in the Chicagoland area to trial and enroll patients in the COOL-MI Study.

Midwest Heart Specialists is a 38 member private practice Cardiology group in the western suburbs of Chicago. Cardiac sub-specialties include congestive heart failure, electrophysiology, interventional cardiology, radiology and clinical diagnosis and treatment. MHS physicians are on staff at five area hospitals and have clinics in Yorkville, BolingBrook, Kishwaukee and Sandwich.