The University of Pittsburgh Post-Cardiac Arrest Service (PCAS) is a multidisciplinary group of clinicians and researchers from the Departments of Emergency Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, Neurology, Cardiology, Radiology, and Physical Medicine & Rehabilitation dedicated to improving care and outcomes for patients who survive cardiac arrest. Founded in 2007 at UPMC Presbyterian, PCAS provides initial resuscitation, in-hospital care, and long-term follow up to over 400 patients each year.
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Affiliated Faculty
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Valerie Arias, MD, Neurology and Critical Care Medicine
Clifton Callaway, MD, PhD, Emergency Medicine
Patrick Coppler, PA-C, Emergency Medicine
Joseph Darby, MD, Critical Care Medicine
Ankur Doshi, MD, Emergency Medicine
Byron Drumheller, MD, Emergency Medicine
Jonathan Elmer, MD, MS, Emergency Medicine, Critical Care Medicine, and Neurology
Laura Faiver, MD, Neurology and Critical Care Medicine
Adam Frisch, MD, MS, Emergency Medicine
Joanna Fong-Isariyawongse, MD, Neurology
Francis Guyette, MD, MS, MPH, Emergency Medicine
A. Murat Kaynar, MD, MPH, Critical Care Medicine
Joseph Mettenburg, MD, PhD, Radiology
Masashi Okubo, MD, MS, Emergency Medicine
Cecelia Ratay, DNP, CRNP, Emergency Medicine
Zachary Rhinehart, MD, Cardiology
Kelly Sawyer, MD, MS, Emergency Medicine
Kimberly Schatz, DNP, CRNP, Emergency Medicine
Mark Schmidhofer, MD, Cardiology
Alexis Steinberg, MD, MS, Neurology, Critical Care Medicine, and Emergency Medicine
Jonathan Tam, MD, Emergency Medicine and Critical Care Medicine
Amy Wagner, MD, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation and Neuroscience
Alexandra Weissman, MD, MS, MPH, Emergency Medicine
Post-cardiac arrest care requires coordinated input from multiple specialists. The early 2000s drew attention to this fact with the advent of induced hypothermia. As centers gained experience with hypothermia pathways, it became apparent that post-cardiac arrest patients had multiple special needs. These patients can benefit from a specific "flavor" of care for their critical illness. The PCAS service line coordinates the services needed for these patients.
The Pittsburgh Cardiac Arrest Category (PCAC) is a validated illness severity tool that is highly predictive of survival and functional outcome at hospital discharge. This score is based on the motor and brainstem subscales of the Full Outline of Unresponsiveness (FOUR) score, and cardiovascular and respiratory subscales of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA) score.
The Cerebral Performance Categories - Extended (CPC-E) is a valid and reliable criterion-referenced tool based on the original Cerebral Performance Categories (CPC) (Safar, 1981) and consists of 10 items.
PCAS supports learning opportunities for trainees of all levels.
The clinical care delivered by PCAS is a platform for multiple investigations and creation of new knowledge. Our research has informed best practices in post-arrest care and drives the future of the field forward.