The Effect of Targeted Temperature Management on the Metabolome Following Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest.

Targeted temperature management (TTM) may moderate the injury from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Slowing the metabolism has been a suggested effect. Nevertheless, studies have found higher lactate levels in patients cooled to 33°C compared with 36°C even days from TTM cessation. Larger studies have not been performed on the TTM's effect on the metabolome. Accordingly, to explore the effect of TTM, we used ultra-performance liquid-mass spectrometry in a substudy of 146 patients randomized in the TTM trial to either 33°C or 36°C for 24 hours and quantified 60 circulating metabolites at the time of hospital arrival (T) and 48 hours later (T). From T to T profound changes to the metabolome were observed: tricarboxylic acid (TCA) cycle metabolites, amino acids, uric acid, and carnitine species all decreased. TTM significantly modified these changes in nine metabolites (Benjamini-Hochberg corrected false discovery rate <0.05): branched amino acids valine and leucine levels dropped more in the 33°C arm (change [95% confidence interval]: -60.9 μM [-70.8 to -50.9] vs. -36.0 μM [-45.8 to -26.3] and -35.5 μM [-43.1 to -27.8] vs. -21.2 μM [-28.7 to -13.6], respectively), whereas the TCA metabolites including malic acid and 2-oxoglutaric acid remained higher for the first 48 hours (-7.7 μM [-9.7 to -5.7] vs. -10.4 μM [-12.4 to -8.4] and -3 μM [-4.3 to -1.7] vs. -3.7 μM [-5 to -2.3]). Prostaglandin E2 only dropped in the TTM 36°C group. The results show that TTM affects the metabolism hours after normothermia have been reached. Clinical Trial Number: NCT01020916.