Significance of amplitude integrated electroencephalography in early stage of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy and cerebral function monitoring in Neonatal Intensive Care Units.

ABSTRACT

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the role of amplitude integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) diagnosis in early stage of neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE), and to evaluate the feasibility of aEEG in cerebral function monitoring in Neonatal Intensive Care Units (NICU). METHODS: 60 cases of term infants with neonatal HIE were included in the observation group, and 50 healthy term infants were enrolled as the control group. Both groups received aEEG monitoring within 6 hours after birth, and the results were analyzed. RESULTS: The correlation coefficient between the degree of asphyxia, SWC, SA and aEEG background activity was r = 0.571 (P<0.001); r = 0.512 (P<0.001) and r = 0.293 (P<0.001), respectively. The correlation coefficient between HIE degree and aEEG background activity, SWC was r = 0.742 (P<0.001) and r = 0.763 (P<0.001), respectively. The Gessell scores of the control group at 1, 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after birth were higher than those of the mild asphyxia group and the severe asphyxia group, and the mild asphyxia group showed higher Gessell scores than the severe asphyxia group (P<0.001). The predicted ROC curve of aEEG monitoring on the occurrence of neonatal HIE showed the area under the curve (AUC) = 0.6354, Std. Error = 0.05668 (95% CI 0.5243-0.7465, P = 0.0209). CONCLUSION: aEEG had obvious diagnostic value in brain injury in the early stage of full-term neonates with asphyxia, and could be used to monitor the cerebral function of NICU, which is helpful for early clinical detection of brain injury of full-term neonates with asphyxia, so as to improve early diagnosis and treatment.