Auditory processing in comatose patients during and after therapeutic hypothermia
Event details
| Date | 04.06.2013 |
| Hour | 14:00 › 15:00 |
| Speaker | Marzia De Lucia, Lemanic Center for Biomedical Imaging, CHUV |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Auditory evoked potentials (AEPs) have been extensively investigated in comatose patients as one of the markers of intact neural functions. Typically, significant differential AEPs in response to different varieties of sounds has been considered as a good predictor of chance of surviving. However most of previous studies have been conducted at late stages of coma, i.e. weeks or months, and before the introduction of therapeutic hypothermia, a treatment which has significantly increased the chance of surviving.
I will present the results of three AEPs studies conducted in post-anoxic comatose patients during and after therapeutic hypothermia (i.e. during first two days of coma), providing evidence of three main phenomena. First, comatose patients during acute coma can discriminate frequent versus rare auditory stimuli in oddball paradigms as well as categories of environmental sounds despite their level of auditory discrimination is not predictive of their final outcome. Second, the progression from hypothermia to normothermia of auditory discrimination between frequent and rare types of stimuli is informative of patients’ chance of awakening. Third, comatose patients can exhibit more accurate auditory discrimination than age-matched controls suggesting a critical role of therapeutic hypothermia and sedation in reducing physiological background activity unrelated to stimulus processing.
I will present the results of three AEPs studies conducted in post-anoxic comatose patients during and after therapeutic hypothermia (i.e. during first two days of coma), providing evidence of three main phenomena. First, comatose patients during acute coma can discriminate frequent versus rare auditory stimuli in oddball paradigms as well as categories of environmental sounds despite their level of auditory discrimination is not predictive of their final outcome. Second, the progression from hypothermia to normothermia of auditory discrimination between frequent and rare types of stimuli is informative of patients’ chance of awakening. Third, comatose patients can exhibit more accurate auditory discrimination than age-matched controls suggesting a critical role of therapeutic hypothermia and sedation in reducing physiological background activity unrelated to stimulus processing.
Practical information
- General public
- Free
Organizer
- Olaf Blanke