Possible Myocardial Stunning after Cardiac Arrest

Serial left ventricular ejection fraction measurements in 23 post-cardiac arrest patients who had either ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia were analyzed to look for the occurrence of myocardial stunning. Our pilot study is the first to show trends that myocardial stunning does occur after cardiac arrest, which indicates that the use of an ejection fraction obtained soon after cardiac arrest is perhaps not the best approach for the assessment of a long-term prognosis.