Examining the effect of MgSO4 on sharp wave transient activity in the hypoxic-ischemic fetal sheep model.

Hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (HIE) due to lack of oxygen is a debilitating disorder experienced by a significant number of preterm infants during birth. Studies show that the brain undergoes different phases of injury following hypoxic insult, but the first 6-8 hours (known as a latent phase) are the key to treatment efficacy. Cerebral hypothermia is one known treatment, and for it to be effective it must be started during the latent phase and continued for several days. In order to determine the effectiveness of treatment it is important to pinpoint the time of insult. Monitoring of sharp wave transient activity in the hypoxic-ischemic (HI) electroencephalogram (EEG) could be a predictor for time of hypoxic insult. Due to practicality, it is optimal if this monitoring is performed automatically. Further, MgSO4 is a drug given to an increasing number of women in labor, due to its neuroprotective properties. This drug may influence transient activity in the HI fetal sheep EEG, leading to further complications in predicting hypoxic insult. This paper explores the effect of MgSO4 on sharp wave transient activity in the EEG of a HI fetal sheep. Demonstrated in this paper is the usage of a Wavelet-Type-II Fuzzy classifier to detect sharp wave transients during the latent phase of a control group fetal sheep and an MgSO4-treated fetal sheep. This detection was performed with an average overall performance of 93.21%±5.49 over 660 minutes of latent phase, post occlusion. There were no significant differences in number of sharp wave transients in the early- and mid-latent phases of injury for both fetal sheep. However, in the late-latent phase the MgSO4-treated fetal sheep had significantly fewer sharp wave transients than the control fetal sheep.