The Utility of Electroencephalography and Cerebral Computed Tomography in Children with Mild and Moderately Severe Closed Head Injuries*

Abstract

The utility of electroencephalography and computed tomography has been studied in a prospective follow-up study of 54 children with mild and moderately severe closed head injuries. EEG and CT scan were recorded in the acute phase. Furthermore the duration of coma and of post-traumatic amnesia were registrated. During a two years follow up period the presence of residual disorders in various faculties was evaluated at fixed time intervals after discharge. The data have been subjected to correlation analyses to study the relation of EEG and CT scan findings with the severity of the trauma and with the occurrence of longterm sequelae. Both the EEG and the CT scan abnormalities are found to correlate appreciably with the degree of severity and with the occurrence of, in particular, long-term sequelae in the fields of neurological disturbances and school performance. It is concluded that EEG and CT are useful diagnostic tools in children with mild and moderately severe closed head injuries.

A QEEG index of level of functional dependence for people sustaining acquired brain injury: The Seville Independence Index (SINDI)

“…It consists of 30 items, 18 from FIM and 12 from FAM. These items are grouped into seven sub-scales: self-care (items 1-7), sphincter control (8)(9), mobility (type of transfer) (10-13), locomotion (14)(15)(16), communication (17)(18)(19)(20)(21), psychological adjustment (22)(23)(24)(25) and cognitive functions (26)(27)(28)(29)(30).…”

“…The frequency bands of interest were delta (1-3.5 Hz), theta (4-7.5 Hz), alpha (8)(9)(10)(11)(12) and beta (12)(13)(14)(15)(16)(17)(18)(19)(20)(21)(22)(23)(24)(25), including high beta . Coherence and phase lag were computed using cross-spectra analysis.…”

“…Studies on QEEG present a consistent and common neurophysiological pattern associated with severity of brain injury, which involves increased slow band amplitudes, decreased fast band amplitudes [16,17] and changes in EEG coherence [18]. The present study pays special attention to the differences in these measures.…”

Attentional skills 10 years post-paediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI)

“…Injury-related variables such as severity, length of post-traumatic amnesia and radiological indices (computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging) are the most widely researched, with no one factor able to account for the variability in outcomes [8,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38]. When attempting to better understand variability in neurobehavioural outcomes, non-injury factors such as pre-morbid academic ability and attentional difficulties [39,40], pre-morbid character and psychiatric disturbances and family function [41] have all been found to influence acute and longer-term recovery and outcome.…”

EEG Evaluation of traumatic brain injury and EEG biofeedback treatment

“…Namely, reduced amplitude of the alpha, beta and gamma frequency bands of EEG (8-12 Hz, 13-25 Hz and 30-40 Hz) (Mas et al, 1993;von Bierbrauer et al, 1993;ruijs et al, 1994;Korn et al, 2005;Hellstrom-Westas, 2005thompson et al, 2005tebano et al, 1988;thatcher et al, 1998a, 2001aroche et al, 2004;Slewa-younan, 2002;Slobounov et al, 2002), changes in EEG coherence, and phase delays in frontal and temporal relations (thatcher et al, 1989, 1998b, 2001bHoffman et al, 1995Hoffman et al, , 1996atrudeau et al, 1998;thornton, 1999, 2003thornton and Cormody, 2005). the vast majority of these studies involved quantitative analyses and, in general, the scientific literature presents a consistent and common quantitative EEG pattern correlated with tBI.…”