European journal of clinical investigation
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Eur. J. Clin. Invest. · Apr 2003
Electrophysiological assessment of the afferent sensory pathway in cardiac arrest survivors.
Hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage in cardiac arrest survivors is global, but postmortem histology could identify parts of the brain that are selectively vulnerable to ischaemia, comprising the thalamus and cortex. We hypothesized that hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage increases along the afferent sensory pathway with a stepwise decrease of detectable somatosensory evoked potential peaks. ⋯ Extent of hypoxic-ischaemic brain damage in cardiac arrest survivors increases along the afferent sensory pathway, with pronounced vulnerability of thalamic and cortical brain regions.