Diagnostic instrumentation for neurological injury

We have developed a prototype neonatal cortical injury monitor (NCIM) that fulfills the need to properly monitor 1-11 infants at a very early stage of life. NCIM provides two advanced analytical tools aimed at forecasting neurological outcome following hypoxic-ischemic injury to the brain. Our studies led us to concentrate on electroencephalogram (EEG) data from the first four hours after injury. We developed two metrics from which to prognosticate outcome: EEG normalized separation (NS) and number and duration of electrical bursts in the EEG. We developed a PC-based instrument that incorporates these metrics with a user-friendly graphical interface for acquisition, analysis, and display of the quantitative EEG results. We developed and tested these algorithms using a database of EEG signals.