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Imaging screening of catastrophic neurological events using a software tool: preliminary results
A P Fernandes1, A Gomes2, J Veiga3
1Hospital Organ Donation Coordination, Hospital Prof. Doutor Fernando Fonseca, Amadora, Portugal; Intensive Care Department, Hospital Prof. Doutor Fernando Fonseca, Amadora, Portugal.
Background:
In Portugal, as in most countries, the most frequent organ donors are brain-dead donors. To answer the increasing need for transplants, donation programs have been implemented. The goal is to recognize virtually all the possible and potential brain-dead donors admitted to hospitals. The aim of this work was to describe preliminary results of a software application designed to identify devastating neurological injury victims who may progress to brain death and can be possible organ donors.
Methods:
This was an observational, longitudinal study with retrospective data collection. The software application is an automatic algorithm based on natural language processing for selected keywords/expressions present in the cranio-encephalic computerized tomography (CE CT) scan reports to identify catastrophic neurological situations, with e-mail notification to the Transplant Coordinator (TC). The first 7 months of this application were analyzed and compared with the standard clinical evaluation methodology.
Results:
The imaging identification tool showed a sensitivity of 77% and a specificity of 66%; predictive positive value (PPV) was 0.8 and predictive negative value (PNV) was 0.7 for the identification of catastrophic neurological events.
Conclusion:
The methodology proposed in this work seems promising in improving the screening efficiency of critical neurological events.
