Open AccessPractice Guideline: Use of Quantitative EEG for the Diagnosis of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury: Report of the Guideline Committee of the American Clinical Neurophysiology Society
Author(s) -
Jeffrey R. Tenney,
David Gloss,
Ravindra Arya,
Peter W. Kaplan,
Ronald P. Lesser,
Vicki Sexton,
Marc R. Nuwer
Publication year - 2021
Publication title -
journal of clinical neurophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.657
H-Index - 99
eISSN - 1537-1603
pISSN - 0736-0258
DOI - 10.1097/wnp.0000000000000853
Subject(s) - guideline , traumatic brain injury , quantitative electroencephalography , concussion , medical diagnosis , medicine , electroencephalography , poison control , injury prevention , psychology , psychiatry , medical emergency , pathology
Despite many decades of research, controversy regarding the utility of quantitative EEG (qEEG) for the accurate diagnosis of mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) remains. This guideline is meant to assist clinicians by providing an expert review of the clinical usefulness of qEEG techniques for the diagnosis of mTBI. This guideline addresses the following primary aim: For patients with or without posttraumatic symptoms (abnormal cognition or behavior), does qEEG either at the time of injury or remote from the injury, as compared with current clinical diagnostic criteria, accurately identify those patients with mTBI (i.e., concussion)? Secondary aims included differentiating between mTBI and other diagnoses, detecting mTBI in the presence of central nervous system medications, and pertinence of statistical methods for measurements of qEEG components. It was found that for patients with or without symptoms of abnormal cognition or behavior, current evidence does not support the clinical use of qEEG either at the time of the injury or remote from the injury to diagnose mTBI (level U). In addition, the evidence does not support the use of qEEG to differentiate mTBI from other diagnoses or detect mTBI in the presence of central nervous system medications, and suitable statistical methods do not exist when using qEEG to identify patients with mTBI. Based upon the current literature review, qEEG remains an investigational tool for mTBI diagnosis (class III evidence).