![]() They detected seizures with a sensitivity of 85.1% and a specificity of 89.9% compared with the reading of conventional continuous EEG data by two neurophysiologists. “After tailored training sessions, the nurses were able to pick up recurrent seizures with a very good sensitivity and a low false-positive rate,” Swisher says. The nurses then checked the displays in hourly blocks for evidence of NCS. Kang, MD, a neurology resident at Duke and first author of the study, reviewed each patient’s qEEG information with a nurse in order to point out the patterns that indicate a seizure and contrast them with artifacts such as muscle movements that can stand out from background. With the wide variety of conditions resulting in-patient admissions to the neuro-ICU, patients’ EEGs show significant variation. In the study, neurologists gave neuro-ICU nurses a brief training on reading qEEG displays tailored to each patient. The longer that they seize, the worse they do,” Swisher says. ![]() “Many studies have demonstrated that a delay in recognition and therefore a delay in treatment results in seizures being difficult to control, and in the meantime they cause more brain injury. Board-certified neurophysiologists receive extensive training in interpreting EEGs and qEEG, but due to their workloads, they read the data only every six hours on average. Quantitative EEG software provides a time-compressed, simplified graphical display calculated from raw EEG data. They can be detected by continuously monitoring a patient’s EEG, but that approach is obviously not practical. ![]() The results of the study were published in Neurocritical Care.Īlthough more than 90% of seizures in critically ill hospital patients are nonconvulsive, NCS by definition have no clear physical manifestation. NCS occur commonly among neuro-ICU patients, and may cause further injury to already damaged brains-and lead to worse outcomes-according to neurologist Christa Swisher, MD, the lead investigator. With the help of quantitative EEG (qEEG) software to graphically display complex data, nurses can be trained to spot nonconvulsive seizures (NCS) in neurologic intensive care patients and potentially shorten the time to treatment, a new study by researchers at Duke University Medical Center shows. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |