Abstract 176: Development Of A Novel Score To Predict Brain Death After Out Of Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Abstract

Introduction: Brain death occurs in 10-15% of successfully resuscitated out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) patients. Early identification of potential organ donors is critical to prevent withdrawal of life sustaining therapy (WLST) and ensure adequate organ perfusion. To predict brain death after OHCA, we developed a novel brain death risk (BDR) score. Methods: The BDR score was developed from a retrospective, single center cohort of OHCA patients admitted from 2011-2020. After excluding patients with early WLST (defined as < 72 hours from OHCA), univariate regression models identified independent predictors of brain death, which were used to build the BDR score. We included the following variables: non-shockable rhythm (1 point), drug overdose as etiology of arrest (1 point), evidence of grey-white differentiation loss or sulcal effacement on head computed tomography (CT) within 24 hours of arrest (2 points), Full-Outline-Of-UnResponsiveness (FOUR) score of 0 (2 points), FOUR score 1-5 (1 point), and age < 45 years (1 point). Head CT findings were based on neuroradiology reports. We validated the BDR score in an independent single center OHCA cohort. The primary outcome was occurrence of brain death. Using the area under the receiving operator characteristic curve (AUC), we assessed the score’s prediction of brain death. Results: The development cohort included 256 OHCA patients; 15.6% (40/256) experienced brain death. The AUC (95% CI) of the BDR score was 0.921 (0.870-0.971). In the validation cohort, 24.4% (21/86) experienced brain death. The AUC (95% CI) of the BDR score was 0.830 (0.7266-0.9335). Table 1 shows the rate of brain death at each BDR score. In both cohorts, a BDR score ≥ 5 was the optimal cut off (sensitivity 0.9 and 0.714, specificity 0.843 and 0.831, respectively). Conclusion: Early scoring systems may be able to identify those at highest risk for brain death after OHCA. Our data suggest that a BDR score ≥ 5 could help predict progression to brain death.