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Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Interplay in Disorders of Consciousness: A Multiple Case Study.

ABSTRACT: Patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (DoC) after severe brain injury may present residual behavioral and cognitive functions. Yet the bedside assessment of these functions is compromised by patients' multiple impairments. Standardized behavioral scales such as the Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) have been developed to diagnose DoC, but there is also a need for neuropsychological measurement in these patients. The Cognitive Assessment by Visual Election (CAVE) was therefore recently created. In this study, we describe five patients in minimally conscious state (MCS) or emerging from the MCS (EMCS). Their cognitive profiles, derived from the CRS-R and CAVE, are presented alongside their neuroimaging results using structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (FDG-PET). Scores on the CAVE decreased along with the CRS-R total score, establishing a consistent behavioral/cognitive profile for each patient. Out of these five cases, the one with highest CRS-R and CAVE performance had the least extended cerebral hypometabolism. All patients showed structural and functional brain impairments that were consistent with their behavioral/cognitive profile as based on previous literature. For instance, the presence of visual and motor residual functions was respectively associated with a relative preservation of occipital and motor cortex/cerebellum metabolism. Moreover, residual language comprehension skills were found in the presence of preserved temporal and angular cortex metabolism. Some patients also presented structural impairment of hippocampus, suggesting the presence of memory impairments. Our results suggest that brain-behavior relationships might be observed even in severely brain-injured patients and they highlight the importance of developing new tools to assess residual cognition and language in MCS and EMCS patients. Indeed, a better characterization of their cognitive profile will be helpful in preparation of rehabilitation programs and daily routines.

SUBMITTER: Aubinet C

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6103268 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Interplay in Disorders of Consciousness: A Multiple Case Study.

Aubinet Charlène C Murphy Lesley L Bahri Mohamed A MA Larroque Stephen K SK Cassol Helena H Annen Jitka J Carrière Manon M Wannez Sarah S Thibaut Aurore A Laureys Steven S Gosseries Olivia O

Frontiers in neurology 20180814

Patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (DoC) after severe brain injury may present residual behavioral and cognitive functions. Yet the bedside assessment of these functions is compromised by patients' multiple impairments. Standardized behavioral scales such as the <i>Coma Recovery Scale-Revised</i> (CRS-R) have been developed to diagnose DoC, but there is also a need for neuropsychological measurement in these patients. The <i>Cognitive Assessment by Visual Election</i> (CAVE) was ...[more]

PMID: 30154755

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Project description:Clinicians are regularly faced with the difficult challenge of diagnosing consciousness after severe brain injury. As such, as many as 40% of minimally conscious patients who demonstrate fluctuations in arousal and awareness are known to be misdiagnosed as unresponsive/vegetative based on clinical consensus. Further, a significant minority of patients show evidence of hidden awareness not evident in their behavior. Despite this, clinical assessments of behavior are commonly used as bedside indicators of consciousness. Recent advances in functional high-density electroencephalography (hdEEG) have indicated that specific patterns of resting brain connectivity measured at the bedside are strongly correlated with the re-emergence of consciousness after brain injury. We report case studies of four patients with traumatic brain injury who underwent regular assessments of hdEEG connectivity and Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) at the bedside, as part of an ongoing longitudinal study. The first, a patient in an unresponsive wakefulness state (UWS), progressed to a minimally-conscious state several years after injury. HdEEG measures of alpha network centrality in this patient tracked this behavioral improvement. The second patient, contrasted with patient 1, presented with a persistent UWS diagnosis that paralleled with stability on the same alpha network centrality measure. Patient 3, diagnosed as minimally conscious minus (MCS-), demonstrated a significant late increase in behavioral awareness to minimally conscious plus (MCS+). This patient's hdEEG connectivity across the previous 18 months showed a trajectory consistent with this increase alongside a decrease in delta power. Patient 4 contrasted with patient 3, with a persistent MCS- diagnosis that was similarly tracked by consistently high delta power over time. Across these contrasting cases, hdEEG connectivity captures both stability and recovery of behavioral trajectories both within and between patients. Our preliminary findings highlight the feasibility of bedside hdEEG assessments in the rehabilitation context and suggest that they can complement clinical evaluation with portable, accurate and timely generation of brain-based patient profiles. Further, such hdEEG assessments could be used to estimate the potential utility of complementary neuroimaging assessments, and to evaluate the efficacy of interventions.

Project description:Background and objectivesIn patients with severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), disorders of consciousness (DoC) have emerged as a serious complication. The prognosis and pathophysiology of COVID-DoC remain unclear, complicating decisions about continuing life-sustaining treatment. We describe the natural history of COVID-DoC and investigate its associated brain connectivity profile.MethodsIn a prospective longitudinal study, we screened consecutive patients with COVID-19 at our institution. We enrolled critically ill adult patients with a DoC unexplained by sedation or structural brain injury and who were planned to undergo a brain MRI. We performed resting-state fMRI and diffusion MRI to evaluate functional and structural connectivity compared to healthy controls and patients with DoC resulting from severe traumatic brain injury (TBI). We assessed the recovery of consciousness (command following) and functional outcomes (Glasgow Outcome Scale Extended [GOSE] and the Disability Rating Scale [DRS]) at hospital discharge and 3 and 6 months after discharge. We also explored whether clinical variables were associated with recovery from COVID-DoC.ResultsAfter screening 1,105 patients with COVID-19, we enrolled 12 with COVID-DoC. The median age was 63.5 years (interquartile range 55-76.3 years). After the exclusion of 1 patient who died shortly after enrollment, all of the remaining 11 patients recovered consciousness 0 to 25 days (median 7 [5-14.5] days) after the cessation of continuous IV sedation. At discharge, all surviving patients remained dependent: median GOSE score 3 (1-3) and median DRS score 23 (16-30). Ultimately, however, except for 2 patients with severe polyneuropathy, all returned home with normal cognition and minimal disability: at 3 months, median GOSE score 3 (3-3) and median DRS score 7 (5-13); at 6 months, median GOSE score 4 (4-5), median DRS score 3 (3-5). Ten patients with COVID-DoC underwent advanced neuroimaging; functional and structural brain connectivity in those with COVID-DoC was diminished compared to healthy controls, and structural connectivity was comparable to that in patients with severe TBI.DiscussionPatients who survived invariably recovered consciousness after COVID-DoC. Although disability was common after hospitalization, functional status improved over the ensuing months. While future research is necessary, these prospective findings inform the prognosis and pathophysiology of COVID-DoC.Trial registration informationClinicalTrials.gov identifier: NCT04476589.

Dataset Information

Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Interplay in Disorders of Consciousness: A Multiple Case Study.

Publications

Brain, Behavior, and Cognitive Interplay in Disorders of Consciousness: A Multiple Case Study.

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