A 58-year-old man has ROSC after a prolonged cardiac arrest. He is comatose. The neuroprognostication team assesses him at 72 hours. MRI brain shows e...

Question

A 58-year-old man has ROSC after a prolonged cardiac arrest. He is comatose. The neuroprognostication team assesses him at 72 hours. MRI brain shows extensive cortical and deep grey matter diffusion restriction on DWI/ADC sequences bilaterally. Somatosensory evoked potentials (SSEPs) show bilaterally absent N20 cortical responses. What is the prognostic significance of these findings?

Accepted Answer

Both findings independently predict poor neurological outcome with very low false positive rates - when combined, they provide strong evidence for poor prognosis

Answer

These findings are non-specific and have no prognostic value

Answer

SSEP is unreliable after cardiac arrest

Answer

MRI should not be performed within the first 7 days

Answer

The findings suggest a good prognosis with rehabilitation potential

uk-fficm MCQ (SBA): Post-Cardiac Arrest Neuroprognostication