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News
The DISCO trial — the biggest study of its kind — found that performing coronary angiography immediately after cardiac arrest (without ST elevation) offers no survival or neurological benefit over a delayed approach. With 1,006 patients enrolled, the results align with prior smaller studies and reinforce current ESC guidelines. Researchers say it's time to shift focus to preventing cardiac arrests before they happen.
The verdict is in on post-cardiac arrest angiography
The DISCO study, the largest trial to date on the topic, has definitively confirmed that rushing patients to coronary angiography immediately after cardiac arrest — when there's no ST elevation on ECG — does not improve their chances of survival or neurological recovery. Presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Munich, the findings echo four prior smaller studies and firmly back existing ESC guideline recommendations against routine immediate angiography in this setting.
Researchers randomized 1,006 resuscitated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients (no ST elevation) to either immediate angiography (within 2 hours) or deferred angiography (not within 72 hours unless clinically needed). Across every measured outcome — 30-day survival, 180-day survival, and neurological function scores — there was no meaningful difference between the two groups.
By the Numbers
Why it matters: These results close the book on a long-debated clinical question and could reshape acute care protocols across Europe and beyond. Experts are now calling for a pivot toward pre-hospital prevention strategies as the more promising frontier for improving cardiac arrest outcomes.
