Effect of topographic comparison of electroencephalographic microstates on the diagnosis and prognosis prediction of patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness

Abstract

AIMS: The electroencephalography (EEG) microstates are indicative of fundamental information processing mechanisms, which are severely damaged in patients with prolonged disorders of consciousness (pDoC). We aimed to improve the topographic analysis of EEG microstates and explore indicators available for diagnosis and prognosis prediction of patients with pDoC, which were still lacking. METHODS: We conducted EEG recordings on 59 patients with pDoC and 32 healthy controls. We refined the microstate method to accurately estimate topographical differences, and then classify and forecast the prognosis of patients with pDoC. An independent dataset was used to validate the conclusion. RESULTS: Through optimized topographic analysis, the global explained variance (GEV) of microstate E increased significantly in groups with reduced levels of consciousness. However, its ability to classify the VS/UWS group was poor. In addition, the optimized GEV of microstate E exhibited a statistically significant decrease in the good prognosis group as opposed to the group with a poor prognosis. Furthermore, the optimized GEV of microstate E strongly predicted a patient's prognosis. CONCLUSION: This technique harmonizes with the existing microstate analysis and exhibits precise and comprehensive differences in microstate topography between groups. Furthermore, this method has significant potential for evaluating the clinical prognosis of pDoC patients.