Neurological evolution of patients in coma at 72 hours after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest

Abstract Introduction Establishing neurological prognosis after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) safely and early in those patients who remain in a coma at 72 hours of admission. Purpose To analyze the prognostic performance of neuron-specific enolase (NSE), Somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) and electroencephalogram (EEG) in these patients. Methods Prospective and observational study, including all OHCAs admitted to a Cardiovascular Intensive Care Unit (CICU) of a tertiary hospital. Neurological stratification was performed at 72 hours with NSE (poor prognosis >60 ng/mL), SSEP (poor prognosis in the absence of N20) and EEG (poor prognosis). The sensitivity and specificity of each test for poor prognosis were calculated, as well as the three tests together. Results Between 03/17/2013 and 02/24/2022, 422 OHCAs were registered, of which 170 patients remained in a coma at 72 hours. The EEG had a sensitivity of 84% and a specificity of 89% due to poor prognosis. SSEPs had a sensitivity of 68% and a specificity of 98% due to poor prognosis. The NSE had a sensitivity of 67% and a specificity of 100% due to poor prognosis. The three tests were able to be performed on 110 patients, the sensitivity for poor prognosis of the three combined tests was 49% and the specificity was 100%. Conclusions In patients in a coma at 72 hours of OHCA, the most specific test to establish a poor prognosis was SSEP and the most sensitive was EEG. The combination of the three had a specificity of 100%. Funding Acknowledgement Type of funding sources: None.