Original article
Late Auditory and Event-Related Potentials Can Be Useful to Predict Good Functional Outcome After Coma

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.apmr.2004.08.011Get rights and content

Abstract

Luauté J, Fischer C, Adeleine P, Morlet D, Tell L, Boisson D. Late auditory and event-related potentials can be useful to predict good functional outcome after coma.

Objective

To investigate whether late auditory and event-related potentials, and in particular N100 and mismatch negativity, together with clinical parameters, can help to predict good functional outcome in comatose patients.

Setting

Hospital.

Participants

Consecutively sampled comatose patients (N=346) whose etiologies of coma were stroke (125 patients), brain injury (96 patients), anoxia (64 patients), complication of neurosurgery (54 patients), and encephalitis (7 patients).

Interventions

Not applicable.

Main outcome measures

Glasgow Outcome Scale score at 1 year postonset. Patients in a minimally conscious state and those who awoke and died during the follow-up period were classified separately.

Results

Univariate analysis showed that all variables studied, except brainstem auditory evoked potentials, correlated significantly with functional outcome. Mismatch negativity showed the highest positive predictive value for good outcome. A validated model was obtained with multivariate logistic analysis, including pupillary light reflex, N100, mismatch negativity, etiology, and age.

Conclusions

Late auditory and event-related potentials, and particularly N100 and mismatch negativity, provide strong prognostic factors for good functional outcome. Furthermore, these components may enhance the accuracy of prognosis when associated with other clinical parameters available at the early stage of coma.

Section snippets

Inclusion criteria

Between December 1997 and February 2002, all comatose patients admitted to intensive care unit (ICU) with a Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS) score of less than 8 were included in this study. The sample totaled 346 patients (213 men, 133 women) between the ages of 8 and 93 years (mean age, 50.73±17.9y), with a GCS score of less than 8 at the time of electrophysiologic recording (GCS score 3 and 4, 156 cases; GCS score 5 to 7, 190 cases). All patients had undergone at least 1 brain computed tomography

Results

Of the 346 consecutive patients included in this study, 1 year after onset of coma, 102 patients (29%) died (GOS, 1), 8 patients (2%) were considered to be in a permanent vegetative state (GOS, 2), 31 patients (9%) were in a minimally conscious state, 60 patients (17%) were severely disabled (GOS, 3), 76 patients (22%) had moderate disabilities (GOS, 4), 46 patients (13%) had a complete recovery (GOS, 5), and 26 patients (8%) awoke and died before 1 year.

Thus, the statistical analysis included

Discussion

Our study showed that the presence of mismatch negativity is a strong predictor of good outcome with a high specificity; furthermore, it showed that a reliable model for good outcome can be obtained with clinical and electrophysiologic data.

Because electrophysiology provides objective assessment of the functional state of the brain, many researchers have used evoked potentials for prognostication of coma outcome. However, strong prognostic markers are missing for good outcome. Primary cortical

Conclusions

Our study showed, using a large sample and a comprehensive statistical analysis, that late AEPs and ERPs are strong individual prognostic factors for good functional outcome. Furthermore, in association with other relevant clinical parameters, several profiles of good functional outcome can be provided with high accuracy, using multivariate logistic regression analysis and/or tree-based analysis. Hence, with few clinical and electrophysiologic variables, which are easy to collect at the early

Supplier

Acknowledgments

We thank Michelle Canova for her helpful participation in constructing tables of the statistical analysis. We thank Professor Hadyn Ellis for his helpful contribution in correcting English grammar.

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