Induced hypothermia -- mild cooling of the human body -- succeeds in preventing brain damage in some victims of cardiac arrest, and the University of Pittsburgh has played a key role in developing it.

But medical centers nationwide only slowly have adopted the therapy, which involves cooling the body as low as 33 degrees Centigrade (or 91.5 degrees Fahrenheit) to prevent brain damage after a cardiac arrest.

"It's quite interesting and true for many therapies," said Dr. Pat Kochanek, who heads the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine's Safar Center for Resuscitation Research. "It takes time for them to percolate into clinical practice."

But induced hypothermia is experiencing gradual acceptance based on clinical evidence that about 20 percent of cardiac-arrest survivors benefit from the treatment.

Induced hypothermia will be one topic during the 7th Annual Safar Symposium to be held this morning in Pitt's Biomedical Science Tower II and this afternoon in the Winter Institute for Simulation, Education & Research. Both are situated along McKee Place in Oakland.

Dr. Fritz Sterz, associate professor in the Medical University of Vienna, Austria, will talk about his mentor, Dr. Peter Safar, and Dr. Safar's work in clinical cooling. The Safar Center was named in his honor. Dr. Safar, described as the "the father of CPR," or cardiopulmonary resuscitation, died on Aug. 3, 2003.

Dr. Sterz also will speak about his own groundbreaking clinical studies in mild hypothermia for resuscitation of cardiac arrest victims, and Dr. Safar's historical contributions in developing the therapy.

Nowadays mild hypothermia is used in 85 percent of eligible cardiac-arrest cases at UPMC hospitals, or about half of all cardiac arrests that reach the hospital system.

Dr. Clifton W. Callaway, associate director of the Safar Center's cardiac arrest research program and an emergency medicine physician, has spearheaded the use of induced hypothermia in UPMC hospitals and helps physicians optimize the treatment of patients.

"We've had experience over the past four or five years with this becoming more of the standard practice," he said. "Today, if you suffer a cardiac arrest and go to UPMC Presbyterian or Shadyside, you are more likely to get this treatment than not.

"I think we've increased survival for patients who could benefit from this," Dr. Callaway said. "It's clearly beneficial for patients with bad brain injury."

UPMC uses an intravenous infusion of ice-cold saline to reduce body temperature quickly, then surface cooling blankets to maintain the temperature. After the body has been kept cool for about a day, it is warmed slowly.

"It's not anything any medical center couldn't do," Dr. Kochanek said. "This is really the only therapy shown to improve neurological outcomes after cardiac arrest."

One reason for slow acceptance, he said, is the need to train physicians to follow the tight protocol necessary for success, along with the need for some specialized equipment and blankets.

"This kind of cooling is not a pill or something in a syringe that you use then walk away," Dr. Kochanek said. "This takes dedicated intensive care and emergency procedures.

He said other medical centers have asked UPMC for help in using the therapy: "UPMC is one of the leaders and models for implementation of this treatment, and it's nice to see."

Studies now under way will determine whether induced cooling of the body helps to preserve other organ functions affected by diminished blood oxygen, with other studies assessing whether it can protect brain function in newborn babies who suffer asphyxia during birth and children who suffer asphyxia due to other medical problems.