Abstract
First let me express my hope that you and your family as well as loved ones are doing well during this terrible COVID-19 pandemic. We realize that this major health crisis is affecting people all over the world and wish you all the best at this time. During this period of social distancing and other health-related issues, we do have good news to communicate to our editorial board members and readership. We are happy to report that downloads are up 48% compared with this time last year. The total number of downloads from January to March 2020 was 6698. We appreciate your continued support of Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management and appreciate all the contributions you are all making toward this journal.
In this volume, we include an expert panel discussion as well as several original articles on topics that should be of interest to the readership. The panel discussion is a summary of the question-and-answer session that occurred during the 2019 Chilling at the Beach Therapeutic Hypothermia and Temperature Management Symposium in Miami. The moderator for this session Dr. Patrick Lyden from the Department of Neurology Cedars Sinai Medical Center presided over a panel that discussed temperature management in neurological and neurosurgical intensive care units (ICUs). Dr. Gregory Kapinos from the Department of Neurology at SUNY Downstate College of Medicine discussed temperature management in the neuro-ICU as well as fever and shivering control. Dr. Sekhon from Vancouver General Hospital presented information on the pathophysiology of hypoxic brain injury after cardiac arrest and beneficial effects of therapeutic interventions. Finally, Dr. Allan Levi from the Department of Neurological Surgery at the University of Miami updated the audience on the use of hypothermia in acute management of spinal cord injury. All these presentations were useful and stimulated an interesting conversation and debate among the attendees.
In terms of the original articles, Dr. Tajada de Rink and colleagues presented a new article on beneficial effects of drug-induced hypothermia in a model of middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats. In another study, Dr. Harmon and colleagues summarized the results of a survey on opinions and management of spontaneous hypothermia in sepsis that provided information from the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine Website in 2017. Dr. Oh and colleagues examined glucose parameters during therapeutic hypothermia that were predictive of neurological outcomes and mortality in patients admitted to neurological or neurosurgical ICUs. In a large animal model of circulatory arrest, Dr. Gong and colleagues examined the effects of two different temperature levels for hypothermic circulatory arrest on a panel of blood biomarkers associated with inflammatory outcomes. In another large animal model, Dr. Gaasch and colleagues investigated the effects of brain temperature on the modulation of dynamic cerebral autoregulation in a model mimicking the scenario of accidental hypothermia. Together these new studies provide a rich collection of new information from preclinical and clinical studies on the effects of hypothermia in various neurological conditions.
Again, we thank the editorial board and authors for submitting their articles to the Journal. We appreciate the support we are receiving to continue to make this Journal successful.