Correlation between hyper-acute EEG alterations and 7-Day NIHSS score in thrombolysis treated ischemic stroke patients

Early post-stroke prognosis is important for guiding treatment and rehabilitation strategies in order to improve recovery and minimize disability. Several demographic, clinical and neuroimaging factors were associated with functional outcome. Early prediction of post-stroke outcome is still challenging since there is large inter-subject variability. Thus, biomarkers that can add prognostic information are still needed. This pilot study aimed to investigate the correlation between early stroke-related EEG changes, measured on bedside with wireless EEG device and short-term functional outcome, measured with 7-day National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS), in thrombolysis treated ischemic stroke patients. Delta/alpha power ratio (ρ=0.67, p=0.031) and relative delta power (ρ=0.66, p=0.037) correlated directly with 7-day NIHSS, while relative alpha power (ρ =-0.69, p=0.028) correlated inversely with 7-day NIHSS. In conclusion, in this preliminary study we assessed the correlation between EEG spectral parameters obtained in the pre-treatment hyper-acute phase and short-term functional outcome. These preliminary results highlight the value of hyper-acute EEG as a possible complementary tool in the evaluation of stroke severity and its potential role in the prediction of stroke-related outcome.