Highlights for Monday, April 18

Here are the 3 papers selected by McMaster editors as suggested reading for this week.

The paper by Kudenchuk et al. confirms that time of intervention in cardiac arrest is of essence and likely more important than the choice of drugs.

The paper by Brunström et al. contributes significantly to the recent discussion on hypertension treatment goals in diabetes mellitus and suggests that enthusiasm for lowering the systolic blood pressure below 140 mm Hg may not be the right action in patients with diabetes.

The paper by Kent et al. suggests that in patients with stroke of unclear etiology the presence of a patent foramen ovale may not be coincidental and that its closure may significantly reduce the frequency of recurrent stroke.

Kudenchuk PJ, Brown SP, Daya M, et al; Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium Investigators. Amiodarone, Lidocaine, or Placebo in Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest. N Engl J Med. 2016 Apr 4. [Epub ahead of print].

Brunström M, Carlberg B. Effect of antihypertensive treatment at different blood pressure levels in patients with diabetes mellitus: systematic review and meta-analyses. BMJ. 2016 Feb 24;352:i717. doi: 10.1136/bmj.i717. PubMed PMID: 26920333; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4770818. [Free article]

Kent DM, Dahabreh IJ, Ruthazer R, et al. Device Closure of Patent Foramen Ovale After Stroke: Pooled Analysis of Completed Randomized Trials. J Am Coll Cardiol. 2016 Mar 1;67(8):907-17. doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2015.12.023. PubMed PMID: 26916479; PubMed Central PMCID: PMC4769377.