Electroencephalography and Right Ventricular Dysfunction in Neonates undergoing Therapeutic Hypothermia for Hypoxic Ischemic Encephalopathy

Objective Evaluate RV function in neonates with normal vs abnormal continuous electroencephalography (cEEG) patterns in the setting of HIE and therapeutic hypothermia (TH). Study Design : Retrospective cohort of infants with moderate to severe HIE that received TH with cEEG monitoring and targeted neonatal echocardiography (TNE) on the same postnatal day. RV dysfunction was defined as tricuspid annular systolic plane excursion (TAPSE) ≤ 6. Subgroup analysis performed on infants with amplitude-integrated electroencephalography (aEEG) monitoring. Results 36 out of 47 patients (77%) had abnormal cEEG. There was no difference in RV dysfunction incidence between patients in the abnormal (n = 12, 27%) vs normal (n = 3, 26%) cEEG groups. Infants in the abnormal cEEG group had higher pulmonary vascular tone and pulmonary artery pressure markers. Conclusions RV dysfunction incidence did not differ between cEEG groups. Alternative tools are required to aid earlier detection of RV dysfunction.