Post-anoxic quantitative MRI changes may predict emergence from coma and functional outcomes at discharge

Background Traditional predictors of neurological prognosis after cardiac arrest are unreliable after targeted temperature management. Absence of pupillary reflexes remains a reliable predictor of poor outcome. Diffusion-weighted imaging has emerged as a potential predictor of recovery, and here we compare imaging characteristics to pupillary exam. Methods We identified 69 patients who had MRIs within seven days of arrest and used a semi-automated algorithm to perform quantitative volumetric analysis of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) sequences at various thresholds. Area under receiver operating characteristic curves (ROC-AUC) were estimated to compare predictive values of quantitative MRI with pupillary exam at days 3, 5 and 7 post-arrest, for persistence of coma and functional outcomes at discharge. Cerebral Performance Category scores of 3–4 were considered poor outcome. Results Excluding patients where life support was withdrawn, ≥2.8% diffusion restriction of the entire brain at an ADC of ≤650 × 10⁻⁶ m²/s was 100% specific and 68% sensitive for failure to wake up from coma before discharge. The ROC-AUC of ADC changes at ≤450 × 10⁻⁶ mm²/s and ≤650 × 10⁻⁶ mm²/s were significantly superior in predicting failure to wake up from coma compared to bilateral absence of pupillary reflexes. Among survivors, >0.01% of diffusion restriction of the entire brain at an ADC ≤450 × 10⁻⁶ m²/s was 100% specific and 46% sensitive for poor functional outcome at discharge. The ROC curve predicting poor functional outcome at ADC ≤450 × 10⁻⁶ mm²/s had an AUC of 0.737 (0.574–0.899, p = 0.04). Conclusion Post-anoxic diffusion changes using quantitative brain MRI may aid in predicting persistent coma and poor functional outcomes at hospital discharge.