Feeding the fibrillating heart: Dichloroacetate improves cardiac contractile dysfunction following VF.

Despite successful resuscitation, cardiac contractile function following ischemia and ventricular fibrillation is markedly impaired, contributing to the high mortality rate after cardiac arrest. Our findings on the beneficial effects of enhancing pyruvate dehydrogenase activation shed light on the novel therapeutic strategy of modulating cardiac metabolism to mitigate this post-ventricular fibrillation contractile dysfunction.