Background: Existing methods to predict recovery after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) lack of accuracy. The aim of this study was to determine whether quantitative proton chemical shift imaging (¹ H-CSI) during the subacute stage of OHCA can predict neurological outcome of such patients.

Methods: This monocentric prospective observational study was conducted in a Intensive Care Unit of a teaching hospital. Forty consecutive patients with OHCA were enrolled between January 1st 2011-December 31st 2013. Multivoxel ¹ H-CSI values were compared to structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) sequences (fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and diffusion-weighted imaging). Ratios of N-acetyl-aspartate (NAA) to creatine (Cr) and choline compounds were analyzed using region of interest in bilateral lenticular cores and thalami. The outcome evaluated was the Cerebral Performance Category (CPC) at 6 months, dichotomized as favorable (CPC 1-2) and unfavorable outcome (CPC 3-5). The performance was compared by area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC_AUC ) curves analysis.

Results: Twenty nine OHCA had an interpretable MRI. Eight patients (28%) had favorable outcome at 6 months. The worst NAA/Cr in lenticular cores was the best ¹ H-CSI marker, with 80% sensitivity (95% confidence interval (CI), 57-94) and a 100% specificity (95% CI, 63-100) with a positive predictive value of 100%. Prognostic accuracy, as quantified by the ROC_AUC , was higher with the worst NAA/Cr in lenticular cores (ROC_AUC 0.88; 95% CI, 0.70-0.97) than with the structural MRI sequences.

Conclusion: In this preliminary study we found that multivoxel ¹ H-CSI in lenticular cores was highly predictive of unfavorable outcome at 6 months.