Delayed head CT in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors: Does this improve predictive performance of neurological outcome?

Background: We compared the ability of head computed tomography (HCT) and MRI, respectively, obtained before or after target temperature management to predict neurologic outcomes in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survivors.

Methods: This retrospective study included adult comatose OHCA survivors who underwent neuroimaging scans within 6 h (first HCT) or 72-96 h (second HCT and MRI) after the return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC). We calculated the gray-white matter ratio (GWR), hypoxic-ischemic brain injury presence (loss of boundary at the basal ganglia level [LOB at BG], sulcal effacement at the centrum semiovale [SE at CS], and pseudo-SAH sign), and the overall score based on MRI findings (a total score of 21 brain regions individually scored according to the degree of signal abnormality).

Results: Overall, 78 patients were included in this analysis, of whom 45 (58%) showed poor outcomes. The second HCT scan showed greater prognostic performance than the first HCT scan for GWR (area under curve 0.92 vs. 0.70), LOB at BG (0.93 vs. 0.65), SE at CS (0.89 vs. 0.64), and pseudo-SAH sign (0.75 vs. 0.51). The overall score on MRI (0.99) showed the highest prognostic performance. However, on the second HCT scan, the combination of GWR and LOB at BG showed prognostic performance (0.96) comparable to the overall score on MRI (P = 0.12); the corresponding sensitivity and specificity values were 85.7% and 100%.

Conclusions: Overall score on MRI and the combination of GWR and LOB at BG findings on second HCT scans may help predict poor outcomes in OHCA survivors.