The Spectrum of Quantitative EEG Utilization Across North America: A Cross-Sectional Survey.

Continuous electroencephalography (cEEG) is commonly used for neuromonitoring in pediatric intensive care units (PICU); however, there are barriers to real-time interpretation of EEG data. Quantitative EEG (qEEG) transforms the EEG signal into time-compressed graphs, which can be displayed at the bedside. A survey was designed to understand current PICU qEEG use. An electronic survey was sent to the Pediatric Neurocritical Care Research Group and Pediatric Status Epilepticus Research Group, and intensivists in 16 Canadian PICUs. Questions addressed demographics, qEEG acquisition and storage, clinical use, and education. Fifty respondents from 39 institutions completed the survey (response rate 53% [39 of 74 institutions]), 76% (37 of 50) from the United States and 24% (12 of 50) from Canada. Over half of the institutions (22 of 39 [56%]) utilize qEEG in their ICUs. qEEG use was associated with having a neurocritical care (NCC) service, ≥200 NCC consults/year, ≥1500 ICU admissions/year, and ≥4 ICU EEGs/day (P < 0.05 for all). Nearly all users (92% [24 of 26]) endorsed that qEEG enhanced care of children with acute neurological injury. Lack of training in qEEG was identified as a common barrier [85% (22 of 26)]. Reviewing and reporting of qEEG was not standard at most institutions. Training was required by 14% (three of 22) of institutions, and 32% (seven of 22) had established curricula. ICU qEEG was used at more than half of the institutions surveyed, but review, reporting, and application of this tool remained highly variable. Although providers identify qEEG as a useful tool in patient management, further studies are needed to define clinically meaningful pediatric trends, standardize reporting, and enhance educate bedside providers.

Benedetti GM ，Morgan LA ，Sansevere AJ ，Harrar DB ，Guerriero RM ，Wainwright MS ，LaRovere KL ，Kielian A ，Ganesan SL ，Press CA ，Pediatric Quantitative EEG Strategic Taskforce (PedQuEST) ... -  《-》

A Survey of Neuromonitoring Practices in North American Pediatric Intensive Care Units.

Neuromonitoring is the use of continuous measures of brain physiology to detect clinically important events in real-time. Neuromonitoring devices can be invasive or non-invasive and are typically used on patients with acute brain injury or at high risk for brain injury. The goal of this study was to characterize neuromonitoring infrastructure and practices in North American pediatric intensive care units (PICUs). An electronic, web-based survey was distributed to 70 North American institutions participating in the Pediatric Neurocritical Care Research Group. Questions related to the clinical use of neuromonitoring devices, integrative multimodality neuromonitoring capabilities, and neuromonitoring infrastructure were included. Survey results were presented using descriptive statistics. The survey was completed by faculty at 74% (52 of 70) of institutions. All 52 institutions measure intracranial pressure and have electroencephalography capability, whereas 87% (45 of 52) use near-infrared spectroscopy and 40% (21/52) use transcranial Doppler. Individual patient monitoring decisions were driven by institutional protocols and collaboration between critical care, neurology, and neurosurgery attendings. Reported device utilization varied by brain injury etiology. Only 15% (eight of 52) of institutions utilized a multimodality neuromonitoring platform to integrate and synchronize data from multiple devices. A database of neuromonitoring patients was maintained at 35% (18 of 52) of institutions. Funding for neuromonitoring programs was variable with contributions from hospitals (19%, 10 of 52), private donations (12%, six of 52), and research funds (12%, six of 52), although 73% (40 of 52) have no dedicated funds. Neuromonitoring indications, devices, and infrastructure vary by institution in North American pediatric critical care units. Noninvasive modalities were utilized more liberally, although not uniformly, than invasive monitoring. Further studies are needed to standardize the acquisition, interpretation, and reporting of clinical neuromonitoring data, and to determine whether neuromonitoring systems impact neurological outcomes.

Kirschen MP ，LaRovere K ，Balakrishnan B ，Erklauer J ，Francoeur C ，Ganesan SL ，Jayakar A ，Lovett M ，Luchette M ，Press CA ，Wolf M ，Ferrazzano P ，Wainwright MS ，Appavu B ，Pediatric Neurocritical Care Research Group (PNCRG) ... -  《-》

A Trial of Real-Time Electrographic Seizure Detection by Neuro-ICU Nurses Using a Panel of Quantitative EEG Trends.

Kang JH ，Sherill GC ，Sinha SR ，Swisher CB ... -  《-》

Review of Noninvasive Neuromonitoring Modalities in Children II: EEG, qEEG.

Critically ill children with acute neurologic dysfunction are at risk for a variety of complications that can be detected by noninvasive bedside neuromonitoring. Continuous electroencephalography (cEEG) is the most widely available and utilized form of neuromonitoring in the pediatric intensive care unit. In this article, we review the role of cEEG and the emerging role of quantitative EEG (qEEG) in this patient population. cEEG has long been established as the gold standard for detecting seizures in critically ill children and assessing treatment response, and its role in background assessment and neuroprognostication after brain injury is also discussed. We explore the emerging utility of both cEEG and qEEG as biomarkers of degree of cerebral dysfunction after specific injuries and their ability to detect both neurologic deterioration and improvement.

Benedetti GM ，Guerriero RM ，Press CA 《-》

Real-time seizure detection in paediatric intensive care patients: the RESET child brain protocol.

Approximately 20%-40% of comatose children with risk factors in intensive care have electrographic-only seizures; these go unrecognised due to the absence of continuous electroencephalography (EEG) monitoring (cEEG). Utility of cEEG with high-quality assessment is currently limited due to high-resource requirements. New software analysis tools are available to facilitate bedside cEEG assessment using quantitative EEG (QEEG) trends. The primary aim of this study is to describe accuracy of interpretation of QEEG trends by paediatric intensive care unit (PICU) nurses compared with cEEG assessment by neurologist (standard clinical care) in children at risk of seizures and status epilepticus utilising diagnostic test statistics. The secondary aims are to determine time to seizure detection for QEEG users compared with standard clinical care and describe impact of confounders on accuracy of seizure detection. This will be a single-centre, prospective observational cohort study evaluating a paediatric QEEG programme utilising the full 19 electrode set. The setting will be a 36-bed quaternary PICU with medical, cardiac and general surgical cases. cEEG studies in PICU patients identified as 'at risk of seizures' will be analysed. Trained bedside clinical nurses will interpret the QEEG. Seizure events will be marked as seizures if >3 QEEG criteria occur. Post-hoc dedicated neurologists, who remain blinded to the QEEG analysis, will interpret the cEEG. Determination of standard test characteristics will assess the primary hypothesis. To calculate 95% (CIs) around the sensitivity and specificity estimates with a CI width of 10%, the sample size needed for sensitivity is 80 patients assuming each EEG will have approximately 9 to 18 1-hour epochs. The study has received approval by the Children's Health Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee (HREC/19/QCHQ/58145). Results will be made available to the funders, critical care survivors and their caregivers, the relevant societies, and other researchers. Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) 12621001471875.

Waak M ，Gibbons K ，Sparkes L ，Harnischfeger J ，Gurr S ，Schibler A ，Slater A ，Malone S ... -  《-》