• Martin Kenda, Margareta Lang, Jens Nee, Carl Hinrichs, Andrea Dell'Orco, Farid Salih, André Kemmling, Niklas Nielsen, Matt Wise, Matthew Thomas, Joachim Düring, Peter McGuigan, Tobias Cronberg, Michael Scheel, Marion Moseby-Knappe, and Christoph Leithner.
• Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Corporate Member of Freie Universität Berlin and Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, Department of Neurology and Experimental Neurology, Augustenburger Platz 1, 13353 Berlin, Germany; Berlin Institute of Health at Charité - Universitätsmedizin Berlin, BIH Biomedical Innovation Academy, BIH Charité Junior Digital Clinician Scientist Program, Charitéplatz 1, 10117 Berlin, Germany. Electronic address: martin.kenda@charite.de.
• Resuscitation. 2024 Jul 1; 200: 110243110243.

BackgroundSelective water uptake by neurons and glial cells and subsequent brain tissue oedema are key pathophysiological processes of hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) after cardiac arrest (CA). Although brain computed tomography (CT) is widely used to assess the severity of HIE, changes of brain radiodensity over time have not been investigated. These could be used to quantify regional brain net water uptake (NWU), a potential prognostic biomarker.MethodsWe conducted an observational prognostic accuracy study including a derivation (single center cardiac arrest registry) and a validation (international multicenter TTM2 trial) cohort. Early (<6 h) and follow-up (>24 h) head CTs of CA patients were used to determine regional NWU for grey and white matter regions after co-registration with a brain atlas. Neurological outcome was dichotomized as good versus poor using the Cerebral Performance Category Scale (CPC) in the derivation cohort and Modified Rankin Scale (mRS) in the validation cohort.ResultsWe included 115 patients (81 derivation, 34 validation) with out-of-hospital (OHCA) and in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). Regional brain water content remained unchanged in patients with good outcome. In patients with poor neurological outcome, we found considerable regional water uptake with the strongest effect in the basal ganglia. NWU >8% in the putamen and caudate nucleus predicted poor outcome with 100% specificity (95%-CI: 86-100%) and 43% (moderate) sensitivity (95%-CI: 31-56%).ConclusionThis pilot study indicates that NWU derived from serial head CTs is a promising novel biomarker for outcome prediction after CA. NWU >8% in basal ganglia grey matter regions predicted poor outcome while absence of NWU indicated good outcome. NWU and follow-up CTs should be investigated in larger, prospective trials with standardized CT acquisition protocols.Copyright © 2024 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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