An Atlas of Amplitude-Integrated EEGs in the Newborn PDF

Preface to the second edition

We are very pleased to present this revised second edition of Atlas of Amplitude-Integrated EEGs in the Newborn . The first edition was published in 2003. Since then the aEEG has been increasingly used in many neonatal intensive care units and the number of publications evaluating various aspects of the aEEG is growing almost exponentially. Recently, the first meta-analysis, evaluating the aEEG for prediction of outcome in term asphyxiated infants, was published. The authors concluded that the aEEG is useful for prediction of outcome and recommended it to be a part of the initial evaluation of all infants after perinatal asphyxia.

The idea behind the predecessor of the aEEG, the Cerebral Function Monitor, which was created and explored by Maynard, Prior, and Scott back in the 1960s, was to design a stable and simple monitor that could be used by the intensive-care staff for evaluation of brain function. With the introduction of new digital aEEG monitors, new possibilities for advanced monitoring of newborn infants have become possible. The gap between the aEEG and the standard EEG is closing, since several of the new monitors can also record aEEG from a variable number of channels as well as a full EEG. Within the near future, other EEG trends than the aEEG will be explored and evaluated.

We are very grateful to several people who contributed with their knowledge and time to create this Atlas: Marianne Thoresen, Frances Cowan, Denis Azzopardi, Sampsa Vanhatalo, Katarina Strand-Brodd, Graham McBain, Heidar Einarsson, Gardar Thorvardson, Ted Weiler, and Damon Lees.

We would also especially like to thank: the late Nils Svenningsen, who was extremely important for the initial introduction of aEEG in the neonatal intensive care unit; Lars-Johan Ahnlide, who created the first digital aEEG/EEG monitor by ‘reversed engineering' in the late 1990s, and who continues to work with aEEG with never-failing enthusiasm; Mona Toet, who created an aEEG database in Utrecht, which helped us to select the best case histories of all those collected since 1992; Kees van Huffelen, with his vast neurophysiologic expertise has been most supportive and contributed to improve the technique; Gorm Greisen, Linda van Rooij, Elisabeth Norman, David Ley, Damjan Osredkar, Floris Groenendaal, and Sverre Wikström for good collaboration in research on aEEG.

Much of this work could not have been done without the enthusiastic support of all the nurses and EEG technicians who quickly learned how to attach the monitor to a baby, obtain a good recording, and to appreciate the significance of the traces. Our special thanks go to Joke Zoet, Ann-Cathrine Berg, Bodil Persson, Suze van Kogelenberg-Wickel, and Ben Nieuwenstein.

Finally, we hope that many babies will benefit from this Atlas and that the reader will find it a practical reference, a good learning experience, and enjoy it as much as we did putting it together.