TY - JOUR

T1 - Otoacoustic emissions for outcome prediction in postanoxic brain injury

AU - Kondziella, Daniel

AU - Jensen, Anne Marie

AU - Hjuler, Thomas

AU - Bille, Michael

AU - Kjaergaard, Jesper

PY - 2018

Y1 - 2018

N2 - Background: Non-invasive, easy-to-use bedside tools to estimate prognosis in unresponsive patients with postanoxic brain injury are needed. We assessed the usefulness of otoacoustic emissions as outcome markers after cardiac arrest. Methods: Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) and transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) were measured in cardiac arrest patients whose prognosis was deemed to be poor following standard neurological assessment (n = 10). Ten patients with myocardial infarction without prior loss of consciousness served as controls. Results: Compared to controls with myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest patients with poor neurological prognosis had significantly less often preserved DPOAE (9.2 vs. 40.8% positive measurements; OR 0.15 (CI 0.07-0.30); p < 0.0001). Partially preserved DPOAE were noted in 4 cardiac arrest patients. TEOAE were not statistically different between the two groups. Conclusions: Despite their convenience, otoacoustic emissions cannot be used as reliable prognostic markers in cardiac arrest survivors. This is because we identified 4 cases with partially preserved otoacoustic emissions in a sample of 10 unresponsive post-cardiac arrest patients whose neurological condition was so poor that active treatment was withdrawn. However, we suggest that future research should address if decaying outer hair cell function over time may serve as a proxy for evolving ischemic brain damage.

AB - Background: Non-invasive, easy-to-use bedside tools to estimate prognosis in unresponsive patients with postanoxic brain injury are needed. We assessed the usefulness of otoacoustic emissions as outcome markers after cardiac arrest. Methods: Distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) and transient evoked otoacoustic emissions (TEOAE) were measured in cardiac arrest patients whose prognosis was deemed to be poor following standard neurological assessment (n = 10). Ten patients with myocardial infarction without prior loss of consciousness served as controls. Results: Compared to controls with myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest patients with poor neurological prognosis had significantly less often preserved DPOAE (9.2 vs. 40.8% positive measurements; OR 0.15 (CI 0.07-0.30); p < 0.0001). Partially preserved DPOAE were noted in 4 cardiac arrest patients. TEOAE were not statistically different between the two groups. Conclusions: Despite their convenience, otoacoustic emissions cannot be used as reliable prognostic markers in cardiac arrest survivors. This is because we identified 4 cases with partially preserved otoacoustic emissions in a sample of 10 unresponsive post-cardiac arrest patients whose neurological condition was so poor that active treatment was withdrawn. However, we suggest that future research should address if decaying outer hair cell function over time may serve as a proxy for evolving ischemic brain damage.

KW - Anoxic-ischemic encephalopathy

KW - Brain edema

KW - Cardiac arrest

KW - Outcome

KW - Prognostication

U2 - 10.3389/fneur.2018.00796

DO - 10.3389/fneur.2018.00796

M3 - Journal article

AN - SCOPUS:85055272757

VL - 9

JO - Frontiers in Neurology

JF - Frontiers in Neurology

SN - 1664-2295

IS - SEP

M1 - 796

ER -