B-09 Cerebral Grey Matter After Out-Of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest In Good Outcome Survivors

Abstract

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) on cognitive functioning and brain volumes, in good outcome survivors. Method Participants were medically stable OHCA survivors. Two control groups were also recruited: patients who experienced myocardial infarction (MI), and healthy controls (HC) with no history of cardiovascular disease. Neuropsychological assessment was conducted using the Neuropsychological Assessment Battery (NAB). Imaging was performed on a 3T Siemens Trio MRI scanner. Cerebral grey matter volume (GM; measured by voxel-based morphometry in SPM12) results are presented. Results Participants (nOHCA = 9, nMI = 19, nHC = 13) ranged in age from 30 to 85 years. When controlling for age, whole-brain analyses revealed decreased GM in anterior cingulate cortex, bilateral hippocampus in the OHCA and in the MI group compared to the HC group. In addition, the MI group had decreased GM compared to the HC in the thalamus and the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (p < .001). No significant differences in GM were observed between the MI and OHCA groups. The hippocampus was selected as a region-of-interest for further analyses. The Total NAB Index was correlated with hippocampal GM in the OHCA group but not in the MI group (rOHCA = .78, p = .014). Conclusions Results revealed select areas of GM reduction in OHCA and MI groups, suggesting a contribution of cardiovascular disease to observed atrophy. Reductions are related to cognitive performance only in the cardiac arrest group which may suggest that these volume losses represent clinically meaningful changes.