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Updated: Jun 5, 2026
Real-Time Monitoring of Neurocritical Patients with Diffuse Optical Spectroscopies
Published on: November 19, 2020
Transient haemodynamic events in neurologically compromised infants: a simultaneous EEG and diffuse optical imaging
R J Cooper1, Jeremy C Hebden, H O'Reilly
1Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, Department of Medical Physics and Bioengineering, University College London, London, UK. rcooper@medphys.ucl.ac.uk
Insights
Newborn infants with neurological damage and seizures show unique haemodynamic events using simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and diffuse optical imaging (DOI). These findings highlight DOI
Area of Science:
- Neuroscience
- Medical Imaging
- Neonatal Research
Background:
- Neonatal seizures pose significant risks to brain development.
- Simultaneous electroencephalography (EEG) and diffuse optical imaging (DOI) offer potential for advanced neonatal brain monitoring.
- Understanding haemodynamic changes during neonatal neurological events is crucial.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate unique haemodynamic events in neurologically damaged neonates using combined EEG and DOI.
- To develop and validate a method for artifact rejection and event identification in DOI data.
- To compare haemodynamic patterns between neonates with neurological damage and healthy controls.
Main Methods:
- Conducted simultaneous EEG and DOI studies on newborn infants.
- Developed a novel artifact rejection and event identification algorithm for DOI data.
- Analyzed data from 4 neurologically damaged neonates (diagnosed with seizures) and 19 healthy controls.
Main Results:
- Consistently identified significant haemodynamic events in 3 out of 4 neurologically damaged infants.
- Observed events characterized by a slow increase in oxyhaemoglobin, followed by a rapid decrease.
- Found no comparable events in the control group, indicating specificity to neurological damage.
Conclusions:
- Simultaneous EEG and DOI can detect distinct haemodynamic signatures in neonates with neurological damage and seizures.
- The described artifact rejection and event identification method is effective for DOI data.
- This combined imaging approach shows promise for studying and monitoring neonatal brain injury.
Abstract:
We describe a series of novel simultaneous EEG and diffuse optical imaging studies of newborn infants. These experiments provide evidence of large, transient haemodynamic events which occur repeatedly and consistently within and across several infants with neurological damage, all of whom were diagnosed with seizures. A simple but independent process of rejecting artifacts and identifying events within diffuse optical imaging data is described, and this process is applied to data from 4 neurologically damaged neonates and from 19 healthy, age-matched controls. This method results in the consistent identification of events in three out of four of the neurologically damaged infant group which are dominated by a slow (>30s) and significant increase in oxyhaemoglobin concentration, followed by a rapid and significant decrease before a slow return to baseline. No comparable events are found in any of our control data sets. The importance and physiological implications of our findings are discussed, as is the suitability of a combined EEG and diffuse optical imaging approach to the study and monitoring of neonatal brain injury.
