Spectrogram screening of adult EEGs is sensitive and efficient.

Abstract

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. 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. 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%). CSA-guided review reduces cEEG review time by 78% with minimal loss of sensitivity compared with conventional review. 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.