Spectrogram screening of adult EEGs is sensitive and efficient

Objective: Quantitatively evaluate whether screening with compressed spectral arrays (CSAs) is a practical and time-effective protocol for assisting expert review of continuous EEG (cEEG) studies in hospitalized adults. Methods: Three neurophysiologists reviewed the reported findings of the first 30 minutes of 118 cEEGs, then used CSA to guide subsequent review (“CSA-guided review” protocol). Reviewers viewed 120 seconds of raw EEG data surrounding suspicious CSA segments. The same neurophysiologists performed independent page-by-page visual interpretation (“conventional review”) of all cEEGs. Independent conventional review by 2 additional, more experienced neurophysiologists served as a gold standard. We compared review times and detection rates for seizures and other pathologic patterns relative to conventional review. Results: A total of 2,092 hours of cEEG data were reviewed. Average times to review 24 hours of cEEG data were 8 (±4) minutes for CSA-guided review vs 38 (±17) minutes for conventional review (p < 0.005). Studies containing seizures required longer review: 10 (±4) minutes for CSA-guided review vs 44 (±20) minutes for conventional review (p < 0.005). CSA-guided review was sensitive for seizures (87.3%), periodic epileptiform discharges (100%), rhythmic delta activity (97.1%), focal slowing (98.7%), generalized slowing (100%), and epileptiform discharges (88.5%). Conclusions: CSA-guided review reduces cEEG review time by 78% with minimal loss of sensitivity compared with conventional review. Classification of evidence: This study provides Class IV evidence that screening of cEEG with CSAs efficiently and accurately identifies seizures and other EEG abnormalities as compared with standard cEEG visual interpretation.

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