title: Long-Term (Six Years) Clinical Outcome Discrimination of Patients in the Vegetative State Could be Achieved Based on the Operational Architectonics EEG Analysis: A Pilot Feasibility Study.
abstract: Electroencephalogram (EEG) recordings are increasingly used to evaluate patients with disorders of consciousness (DOC) or assess their prognosis outcome in the short-term perspective. However, there is a lack of information concerning the effectiveness of EEG in classifying long-term (many years) outcome in chronic DOC patients. Here we tested whether EEG operational architectonics parameters (geared towards consciousness phenomenon detection rather than neurophysiological processes) could be useful for distinguishing a very long-term (6 years) clinical outcome of DOC patients whose EEGs were registered within 3 months post-injury. The obtained results suggest that EEG recorded at third month after sustaining brain damage, may contain useful information on the long-term outcome of patients in vegetative state: it could discriminate patients who remain in a persistent vegetative state from patients who reach a minimally conscious state or even recover a full consciousness in a long-term perspective (6 years) post-injury. These findings, if confirmed in further studies, may be pivotal for long-term planning of clinical care, rehabilitative programs, medical-legal decisions concerning the patients, and policy makers.
authors.affiliation: BM-Science, Brain and Mind Technologies Research Centre, Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Andrew A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Fingelkurts
authors.affiliation: BM-Science, Brain and Mind Technologies Research Centre, Espoo, Finland.
authors.forename: Alexander A
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Fingelkurts
authors.affiliation: Neurorehabilitation Unit, Rehabilitation Department, Fondazione Istituto "San Raffaele - G. Giglio", Cefalù (PA), Italy; Neurophysiology Unit, Rehabilitation Department, Fondazione Istituto "San Raffaele - G. Giglio", Cefalù (PA), Italy.
authors.forename: Sergio
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Bagnato
authors.affiliation: Neurorehabilitation Unit, Rehabilitation Department, Fondazione Istituto "San Raffaele - G. Giglio", Cefalù (PA), Italy; Neurophysiology Unit, Rehabilitation Department, Fondazione Istituto "San Raffaele - G. Giglio", Cefalù (PA), Italy.
authors.forename: Cristina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Boccagni
authors.affiliation: Neurorehabilitation Unit, Rehabilitation Department, Fondazione Istituto "San Raffaele - G. Giglio", Cefalù (PA), Italy; Neurophysiology Unit, Rehabilitation Department, Fondazione Istituto "San Raffaele - G. Giglio", Cefalù (PA), Italy.
authors.forename: Giuseppe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Galardi
keywords: Brain operations; EEG-a and b-rhythms; consciousness; functional connectivity; minimally conscious state (MCS); neuronal assemblies; operational synchrony; synchronization; unconsciousness; vegetative state (VS)