BrainCool AB (publ): Scientific publication for treatment of Heat stroke with RhinoChill™ System
In a recent publication in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine from the Centre of Emergency Medicine at University Hospital Essen, new successful data is presented of the treatment of heat stroke with BrainCool´s product RhinoChill™ System.
A patient was found in deep coma by emergency medical services showing a core temperature around 42°C. Despite of prehospital physical cooling, the patient showed a persistent temperature of 41.5°C upon reaching the emergency room (ER). Following the introduction of the RhinoChill™ System in ER, an excellent cooling rate of 2.8°C per hour was obtained and the critical threshold of 39°C was obtained within 50 minutes. 16 hours later the patient was successfully extubated with a good neurological outcome.
CEO Martin Waleij comments;
The outcome of the treatment from University of Essen is encouraging due to several factors;
- The cooling rate was almost instant on a patient with high persistent fever of above 41,5 °C, and the RhinoChill™ System was able to reduce the high fever quickly, where other pre hospital solutions had failed.
- The cooling treatment was applied only in the ER, meaning that going forward with the concept, improved results could be obtained by implementation at the primary site and during transport in an ambulance to the ER of the hospital.
- The patient case was fully recovered neurologically, although the patient was assessed in deep coma.
This opens up yet another pathway for implementing the technology, for patients with heat stroke. Which may be of a growing concern with climate change and in sports events in athletes and / or workers ahead of Qatar FIFA World Cup ( ref. 1 – articles of Qatar FIFA World Cup in Guardian / Science direct ).
BrainCool remains confident that further scientific clinical publications of the RhinoChill™ concept - for example derived from presentations at the American Heart meeting in November 2019 – will change guidelines for the important patient groups with sudden cardiac arrest.
In Germany, obviously the recent approved EU commercialization grant where implementation of the BrainCell concept, the combination of RhinoChill™ and BrainCool™ System, will be made at several major University hospital´s neurology departments implementing the treatment on thrombectomy patients.
About heatstroke
Heatstroke is a life-threatening condition, with an average of more than 25 000 deaths (ref. 2) occurring only in Europe every year (due to classic heatstroke - as a result of weather). This number of events is expected to increase due to climate change where heat waves becoming more frequent in the near future.
The mortality could be reduced by a prompt recognition of the condition and instants effective treatment.
A heat illness can progress suddenly to life-threatening heat stroke. Successful treatment depends on rapid diagnosis and cooling of the body as quickly as possible. The aim is to reduce core body temperature to <40 °C within “the goldenhalf hour“ / 30 minutes (ref. 3 and 4)
The prognosis worsens if the core body temperature is sustained above the critical threshold of 40.5°C. Indeed, rapid and effective cooling is the cornerstone of treatment and should be delayed only for essential cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
A review article of Heatstroke in the New England Journal of Medicine issue in June 2019 (https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMra1810762) highlights the need to for solutions and treatments and increased relevance for the medical community.
One of the epidemiologic and clinical features of heatstroke is a common presence of ARDS (acute respiratory distress syndrome). (ref. 4)
About the publication
The scientific publication (Manegold et al, https://www.ajemjournal.com/article/S0735-6757(20)30459-9/pdf) is on a patient case with a successful application for a patient with heatstroke. The patient survived and with complete neurological recovery, although the patients was assessed with GSC 4 (a summary scale of three neurological conditions of a patient, where 15 is the best and 3 the worst condition).
An efficient treatment model for heatstroke have been hampered by a quick and effective hypothermia treatment. Also, if patients have been able to be cooled down (i.e. large amount of cold water ) to meet the primary treatment goal – reduction of temperature < 42°C – patients have to be cooled firstly before transport to hospital.
CEO Martin Waleij concludes;
The experience and use of the product showed safety and an unprecedented cooling efficacy where other solutions has failed, indicating a viable treatment model for heat stroke.
Another striking outcome of the patient treatment, is the complete neurological recovery of the patient.
The patient case also shows that RhinChill™ could be a complement to the BrainCool™ System to lower difficult fever peaks in the ICU setting (such as neurological fever, covid 19/ARDS fever patients)
References
Ref. 2 - https://www.aerzteblatt.de/pdf.asp?id=209070
Ref. 3 - Adams WM, Hosokawa Y, Casa DJ: The timing of exertional heat stroke survival starts prior to collapse. Curr Sports Med Rep 2015; 14: 273–4.e85.
Ref. 4 - https://www.nejm.org/doi/10.1056/NEJMra1810762
For more information
Martin Waleij - CEO
+46 - 733 -93 70 76
E-mail: martin.waleij@braincool.se
About BrainCool AB (publ)
BrainCool AB (publ) is an innovative medical device company that develops, markets, and sells leading medical cooling systems for indications and areas with significant medical benefits within the healthcare sector. The company focuses on two business segments, Brain Cooling and Pain Management. BrainCool AB (publ) is based in Lund, Sweden, and its share is listed on Spotlight Stock Market.