ContributionsMagdy Selim --organized the trial hypotheses, designed the trial, provided guidance about the data analysis and interpretation and presentation of the data, and drafted most of the sections of the manuscript. Lydia Foster --involved in the statistical analysis and data interpretation, and Contributed to the development and revisions to the manuscript. Claudia Moy --involved in the oversight of the trial conduct and progress Guohua Xi --organized the trial hypotheses, and provided critical revisions to the manuscript. MH, MJ, VS, and WC contributed to recruitment and randomization of trial participants, and provided critical revisions to the manuscript. LM and SG were involved in the design of the trial and provided critical revisions to the manuscript. Casey Norton --provided volumetric measurements of imaging data. Yuko Palesch --involved in the design of the study, statistical analysis and data interpretation, and provided critical revisions to the manuscript. Sharon yeatts --involved in the design of the study, statistical analysis and data interpretation, and contributed to the development and revisions to the manuscript. The idef investigators (see appendix) --contributed to the identification and, when eligible, randomization of trial participants. DECLARATION OF INTERESTSThis was an investigator-initiated study, funded by the NINDS (U01 NS074425). Deferoxamine Mesylate is a generic drug, and there was no commercial or industrial support for the trial. None of the authors has any competing interests related to the submitted work. MS reports grants from the NIH/NINDS (i-DEF) and the American Heart Association (outside the submitted work), and personal fees for serving on the advisory board of CSL Behring (outside the submitted work) during the conduct of the trial. SDY reports grant support from the NINDS, personal fees from Genentech and other fees from CR Bard Inc. (outside the submitted work) during the conduct of the study. SG, LDF, YP, and GX report grants from the NIH/NINDS. MDH reports personal fees from Merck, nonfinancial support from Hoffmann-La Roche Canada Ltd, grants from Covidien (Medtronic), grants from Boehringer-Ingleheim, grants from Stryker Inc., grants from Medtronic LLC, grants from NoNO Inc., (outside the submitted work); In addition, MDH has a patent Systems and Methods for Assisting in Decision-Making and Triaging for Acute Stroke Patients pending to US Patent office Number: 62/086,077 and owns stock in Calgary Scientific Incorporated, a company that focuses on medical imaging software, is a director of the Canadian Federation of Neurological Sciences, a not-for-profit group and has received grant support from Alberta Innovates Health Solutions, CIHR, Heart & Stroke Foundation of Canada, and NINDS. LM, VS, WC, MJ, CM, and CN have nothing to disclose.

IMPORTANCE Periodic discharges (PDs) that do not meet seizure criteria, also termed the ictal interictal continuum, are pervasive on electroencephalographic (EEG) recordings after acute brain injury. However, their association with brain homeostasis and the need for clinical intervention remain unknown.OBJECTIVE To determine whether distinct PD patterns can be identified that, similar to electrographic seizures, cause brain tissue hypoxia, a measure of ongoing brain injury. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTSThis prospective cohort study included 90 comatose patients with high-grade spontaneous subarachnoid hemorrhage who underwent continuous surface (scalp) EEG (sEEG) recording and multimodality monitoring, including invasive measurements of intracortical (depth) EEG (dEEG), partial pressure of oxygen in interstitial brain tissue (PbtO 2 ), and regional cerebral blood flow (CBF). Patient data were collected from June 1, 2006, to September 1, 2014, at a single tertiary care center. The retrospective analysis was performed from September 1, 2014, to May 1, 2016, with a hypothesis that the effect on brain tissue oxygenation was primarily dependent on the discharge frequency.MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES Electroencephalographic recordings were visually classified based on PD frequency and spatial distribution of discharges. Correlations between mean multimodality monitoring data and change-point analyses were performed to characterize electrophysiological changes by applying bootstrapping. RESULTSOf the 90 patients included in the study (26 men and 64 women; mean [SD] age, 55 [15] years), 32 (36%) had PDs on sEEG and dEEG recordings and 21 (23%) on dEEG recordings only. Frequencies of PDs ranged from 0.5 to 2.5 Hz. Median PbtO 2 was 23 mm Hg without PDs compared with 16 mm Hg at 2.0 Hz and 14 mm Hg at 2.5 Hz (differences were significant for 0 vs 2.5 Hz based on bootstrapping). Change-point analysis confirmed a temporal association of high-frequency PD onset (Ն2.0 Hz) and PbtO 2 reduction (median normalized PbtO 2 decreased by 25% 5-10 minutes after onset). Increased regional CBF of 21.0 mL/100 g/min for 0 Hz, 25.9 mL/100 g/min for 1.0 Hz, 27.5 mL/100 g/min for 1.5 Hz, and 34.7 mL/100 g/min for 2.0 Hz and increased global cerebral perfusion pressure of 91 mm Hg for 0 Hz, 100.5 mm Hg for 0.5 Hz, 95.5 mm Hg for 1.0 Hz, 97.0 mm Hg for 2.0 Hz, 98.0 mm Hg for 2.5 Hz, 95.0 mm Hg for 2.5 Hz, and 67.8 mm Hg for 3.0 Hz were seen for higher PD frequencies.CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE These data give some support to consider redefining the continuum between seizures and PDs, suggesting that additional damage after acute brain injury may be reflected by frequency changes in electrocerebral recordings. Similar to seizures, cerebral blood flow increases in patients with PDs to compensate for the increased metabolic demand but higher-frequency PDs (>2 per second) may be inadequately compensated without an additional rise in CBF and associated with brain tissue hypoxia, or higher-frequency PDs may reflect inadequacies in brain compensatory...

Reduced QOL affects as many as one-third of SAH survivors 1 year after SAH. Delayed infarction is the most important in-hospital modifiable factor that affects QOL. Increased attention to cognitive and emotional difficulties after hospital discharge may help patients achieve greater QOL.

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