Abstract
Continuous EEG monitoring has not been used widely in neonatal intensive care,
especially in the care of extremely premature infants, probably in part because
of a lack of a reliable quantitative method. The purpose of this study was to
quantify the EEG of the very premature infants just after birth by using spectral
analysis and to describe the characteristics of the spectral signal when infants
were clinically stable. Digital EEG recordings were performed on 53 infants who
were < or =30 wk gestation for 75 min each day during the first 4 d after birth.
Artefact was rejected manually after visual inspection of trace. The EEG was
analyzed by manual measurement of interburst interval and automatically by
spectral analysis using Fast Fourier Transformation. Spectral analysis generated
the normal ranges of the relative power of the delta (0.5-3.5 Hz), theta (4-7.5
Hz), alpha (8-12.5 Hz), and beta (13-30 Hz) frequency bands, spectral edge
frequency, and symmetry. The median (range) relative power of the delta band
increased significantly from 68% (62-76%) on day 1 to 81% (72-89%) on day 4
(p=0.001). The interburst intervals became progressively shorter between days 1
[14s (10-25)] and 3 [8s (6-12)]; there were no significant differences between
days 3 and 4. The relative power of the delta band seemed to be the most useful
and repeatable spectral measurement for continuous long-term monitoring. However,
automatic artefact rejection software needs to be developed before continuous
quantitative EEG monitoring can be used in the neonatal intensive care
environment.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Journal | Pediatric Research |
| Volume | 57 |
| Issue number | 3 |
| Publication status | Published - 2005 |