Serum markers of brain injury can predict good neurological outcome after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Purpose: The majority of unconscious patients after cardiac arrest (CA) do not fulfill guideline criteria for a likely poor outcome, their prognosis is considered "indeterminate". We compared brain injury markers in blood for prediction of good outcome and for identifying false positive predictions of poor outcome as recommended by guidelines.

Methods: Retrospective analysis of prospectively collected serum samples at 24, 48 and 72 h post arrest within the Target Temperature Management after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (TTM)-trial.

Reduced EEG montage has a high accuracy in the post cardiac arrest setting.

Objective: To study if comatose cardiac arrest patients can be assessed with a reduced number of EEG electrodes.

Methods: 110 routine EEGs from 67 consecutive patients, including both hypothermic and normothermic EEGs were retrospectively assessed by three blinded EEG-experts using two different electrode montages. A standard 19-electrode-montage was compared to the reduced version of the same EEGs, down-sampled to six electrodes (F3, T3, P3, F4, T4, P4).

Bedside interpretation of simplified continuous EEG after cardiac arrest.

Background: Continuous EEG-monitoring (cEEG) in the ICU is recommended to assess prognosis and detect seizures after cardiac arrest but implementation is often limited by the lack of EEG-technicians and experts. The aim of the study was to assess ICU physicians ability to perform preliminary interpretations of a simplified cEEG in the post cardiac arrest setting.

Methods: Five ICU physicians received training in interpretation of simplified cEEG - total training duration 1 day.

Swedish consensus reached on recording, interpretation and reporting of neonatal continuous simplified electroencephalography that is supported by amplitude-integrated trend analysis.

Unlabelled: Continuous monitoring of electroencephalography (EEG), with a focus on amplitude-integrated EEG (aEEG), has been used in neonatal intensive care for decades. A number of systems have been suggested for describing and quantifying aEEG patterns. Extensive full-montage EEG monitoring is used in specialised intensive care units.

Electroencephalographic characteristics of status epilepticus after cardiac arrest.

Objective: To describe the electrophysiological characteristics and pathophysiological significance of electrographic status epilepticus (ESE) after cardiac arrest and specifically compare patients with unequivocal ESE to patients with rhythmic or periodic borderline patterns defined as possible ESE.

Methods: Retrospective cohort study of consecutive patients treated with targeted temperature management and monitored with simplified continuous EEG. Patients with ESE were identified and electrographically characterised until 72h after ESE start using the standardised terminology of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society.

Outcome following postanoxic status epilepticus in patients with targeted temperature management after cardiac arrest.

Background: Postanoxic electrographic status epilepticus (ESE) is considered a predictor of poor outcome in resuscitated patients after cardiac arrest (CA). Observational data suggest that a subgroup of patients may have a good outcome. This study aimed to describe the prevalence of ESE and potential clinical and electrographic prognostic markers.

Exploratory study of EEG burst characteristics in preterm infants.

In this paper, we study machine learning techniques and features of electroencephalography activity bursts for predicting outcome in extremely preterm infants. It was previously shown that the distribution of interburst interval durations predicts clinical outcome, but in previous work the information within the bursts has been neglected. In this paper, we perform exploratory analysis of feature extraction of burst characteristics and use machine learning techniques to show that such features could be used for outcome prediction.

Pre-surgical epilepsy evaluation using 3T MRI. Do surface coils provide additional information?

Purpose: To assess if 3T MRI can be further improved by adding surface coil imaging, in the context of detection and characterization of cerebral lesions in patients with drug-resistant epilepsy.

Methods: Twenty five patients with drug-resistant epilepsy undergoing evaluation for epilepsy surgery were examined with high resolution 3T MRI. The patients were MRI-negative (n = 15), or had unclear findings (n = 10), on previous MRI at 1.