The predictive value of highly malignant EEG patterns after cardiac arrest: evaluation of the ERC-ESICM recommendations.
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BORIS DOI
Publisher DOI
PubMed ID
38172300
Description
PURPOSE
The 2021 guidelines endorsed by the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) recommend using highly malignant electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns (HMEP; suppression or burst-suppression) at > 24 h after cardiac arrest (CA) in combination with at least one other concordant predictor to prognosticate poor neurological outcome. We evaluated the prognostic accuracy of HMEP in a large multicentre cohort and investigated the added value of absent EEG reactivity.
METHODS
This is a pre-planned prognostic substudy of the Targeted Temperature Management trial 2. The presence of HMEP and background reactivity to external stimuli on EEG recorded > 24 h after CA was prospectively reported. Poor outcome was measured at 6 months and defined as a modified Rankin Scale score of 4-6. Prognostication was multimodal, and withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WLST) was not allowed before 96 h after CA.
RESULTS
845 patients at 59 sites were included. Of these, 579 (69%) had poor outcome, including 304 (36%) with WLST due to poor neurological prognosis. EEG was recorded at a median of 71 h (interquartile range [IQR] 52-93) after CA. HMEP at > 24 h from CA had 50% [95% confidence interval [CI] 46-54] sensitivity and 93% [90-96] specificity to predict poor outcome. Specificity was similar (93%) in 541 patients without WLST. When HMEP were unreactive, specificity improved to 97% [94-99] (p = 0.008).
CONCLUSION
The specificity of the ERC-ESICM-recommended EEG patterns for predicting poor outcome after CA exceeds 90% but is lower than in previous studies, suggesting that large-scale implementation may reduce their accuracy. Combining HMEP with an unreactive EEG background significantly improved specificity. As in other prognostication studies, a self-fulfilling prophecy bias may have contributed to observed results.
The 2021 guidelines endorsed by the European Resuscitation Council (ERC) and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM) recommend using highly malignant electroencephalogram (EEG) patterns (HMEP; suppression or burst-suppression) at > 24 h after cardiac arrest (CA) in combination with at least one other concordant predictor to prognosticate poor neurological outcome. We evaluated the prognostic accuracy of HMEP in a large multicentre cohort and investigated the added value of absent EEG reactivity.
METHODS
This is a pre-planned prognostic substudy of the Targeted Temperature Management trial 2. The presence of HMEP and background reactivity to external stimuli on EEG recorded > 24 h after CA was prospectively reported. Poor outcome was measured at 6 months and defined as a modified Rankin Scale score of 4-6. Prognostication was multimodal, and withdrawal of life-sustaining therapy (WLST) was not allowed before 96 h after CA.
RESULTS
845 patients at 59 sites were included. Of these, 579 (69%) had poor outcome, including 304 (36%) with WLST due to poor neurological prognosis. EEG was recorded at a median of 71 h (interquartile range [IQR] 52-93) after CA. HMEP at > 24 h from CA had 50% [95% confidence interval [CI] 46-54] sensitivity and 93% [90-96] specificity to predict poor outcome. Specificity was similar (93%) in 541 patients without WLST. When HMEP were unreactive, specificity improved to 97% [94-99] (p = 0.008).
CONCLUSION
The specificity of the ERC-ESICM-recommended EEG patterns for predicting poor outcome after CA exceeds 90% but is lower than in previous studies, suggesting that large-scale implementation may reduce their accuracy. Combining HMEP with an unreactive EEG background significantly improved specificity. As in other prognostication studies, a self-fulfilling prophecy bias may have contributed to observed results.
Date of Publication
2024-01
Publication Type
Article
Subject(s)
Keyword(s)
Brain injury Cardiac arrest Coma EEG Outcome Prognosis
Language(s)
en
Contributor(s)
Turella, Sara | |
Dankiewicz, Josef | |
Friberg, Hans | |
Jakobsen, Janus Christian | |
Leithner, Christoph | |
Levin, Helena | |
Lilja, Gisela | |
Moseby-Knappe, Marion | |
Nielsen, Niklas | |
Rossetti, Andrea O | |
Sandroni, Claudio | |
Cronberg, Tobias | |
Westhall, Erik |
Additional Credits
Series
Intensive care medicine
Publisher
Springer
ISSN
1432-1238
Access(Rights)
open.access