Neonatal EEG graded for severity of background abnormalities in hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy

This report describes a set of neonatal electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings graded according to the severity of abnormalities in the background pattern. The dataset consists of 169 hours of multichannel EEG from 53 neonates recorded in a neonatal intensive care unit. All neonates received a diagnosis of hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy (HIE), the most common cause of brain injury in full term infants. For each neonate, multiple 1-hour epochs of good quality EEG were selected and then graded for background abnormalities. The grading system assesses EEG attributes such as amplitude and frequency, continuity, sleep--wake cycling, symmetry and synchrony, and abnormal waveforms. Background severity was then categorised into 4 grades: normal or mildly abnormal EEG, moderately abnormal EEG, severely abnormal EEG, and inactive EEG. The data can be used as a reference set of multi-channel EEG for neonates with HIE, for EEG training purposes, or for developing and evaluating automated grading algorithms

Ultrasound assessment of rectus femoris and anterior tibialis muscles in young trauma patients

Purpose: Quantitative and qualitative changes of skeletal muscle are typical and early findings in trauma patients,\ua0being possibly associated with functional impairment. Early assessment of muscle changes\u2014as evaluated by muscle ultrasonography\u2014could yield important information about patient\u2019s outcome. Methods: In this prospective observational study, we used ultrasonography to evaluate the morphological changes of rectus femoris (RF) and anterior tibialis (AT) muscles in a group of young, previously healthy trauma patients on enteral feeding. Results: We studied 38 severely injured patients (median Injury Severity Score\ua0=\ua034; median age\ua0=\ua040 y.o.) over the course of the ICU stay up to\ua03\ua0weeks after trauma. We found a progressive loss of muscle mass from day 0 to day 20,\ua0that\ua0was more relevant for the RF (45%) than for the AT (22%); this was accompanied by an increase in echogenicity (up to 2.5 by the Heckmatt Scale, where normal echogenicity\ua0=\ua01), which is an indicator of myofibers depletion. Conclusions: Ultrasound evaluation of skeletal muscles is inexpensive, noninvasive, simple and easily repeatable. By this method, we were able to quantify the morphological changes of skeletal muscle in trauma patients. Further studies may rely on this technicque to evaluate the impact of different therapeutic strategies on muscle wasting