Kang et al reported a score for predicting the outcome for a patient with the Unresponsive Wakefulness Syndrome (UWS). The authors are from the Fourth Military Medical University and Capital Medical University in China.
Patient selection: unresponsive wakefulness syndrome (vegetative state)
Paramters:
(1) type of brain injury
(2) motor response
(3) EEG activity
(4) sleep spindles
(5) cortical N20 response on left or right side after median nerve stimulation
Parameter
Finding
Points
type of brain injury
nontraumatic
0
traumatic
1
motor response
extensor or absent
0
flexor
1
EEG reactivity
absent
0
present
1
sleep spindles
absent
0
present
1
N20 response
absent bilaterally
0
present
1
total score =
= SUM(points for all 5 parameters)
Interpretation:
• minimum score: 0
• maxium score: 5
• A score >= 3 had the best Youden score for predicting recovery of awareness.
Performance:
• The area under the ROC curve was 0.92.
• Using a cutoff of >=3, the sensitivity was 0.88 and specificity 0.85.
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