Automated analysis of background EEG and reactivity during therapeutic hypothermia in comatose patients after cardiac arrest.

Visual analysis of electroencephalography (EEG) background and reactivity during therapeutic hypothermia provides important outcome information, but is time-consuming and not always consistent between reviewers. Automated EEG analysis may help quantify the brain damage. Forty-six comatose patients in therapeutic hypothermia, after cardiac arrest, were included in the study.

Resting-state EEG study of comatose patients: a connectivity and frequency analysis to find differences between vegetative and minimally conscious states.

The aim of this study was to look for differences in the power spectra and in EEG connectivity measures between patients in the vegetative state (VS/UWS) and patients in the minimally conscious state (MCS). The EEG of 31 patients was recorded and analyzed. Power spectra were obtained using modern multitaper methods.

Automated EEG entropy measurements in coma, vegetative state/unresponsive wakefulness syndrome and minimally conscious state.

Monitoring the level of consciousness in brain-injured patients with disorders of consciousness is crucial as it provides diagnostic and prognostic information. Behavioral assessment remains the gold standard for assessing consciousness but previous studies have shown a high rate of misdiagnosis. This study aimed to investigate the usefulness of electroencephalography (EEG) entropy measurements in differentiating unconscious (coma or vegetative) from minimally conscious patients.

Brain connectivity in pathological and pharmacological coma.

Recent studies in patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) tend to support the view that awareness is not related to activity in a single brain region but to thalamo-cortical connectivity in the frontoparietal network. Functional neuroimaging studies have shown preserved albeit disconnected low-level cortical activation in response to external stimulation in patients in a "vegetative state" or unresponsive wakefulness syndrome. While activation of these "primary" sensory cortices does not necessarily reflect conscious awareness, activation in higher-order associative cortices in minimally conscious state patients seems to herald some residual perceptual awareness.