Rian Bosch

Objective: Pediatric patients with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at risk of non-cardiac complications that impact outcome. Early prognostication is necessary to tailor treatment and improve parent counseling. This systematic review assessed the prognostic value of perioperative near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) monitoring of regional oxygen saturation (rSO₂) with regard to brain injury, brain development, neurodevelopment, acute kidney injury (AKI), and necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC) in pediatric CHD patients. Data Sources: PubMed and Embase databases. Study Selection: We searched for original research articles published up to 2023 describing children (younger than 18 yr) with CHD using perioperative rSO₂ monitoring, and reporting their association with at least one of the following outcomes: AKI, NEC, brain injury, brain development, or neurodevelopment. Data Extraction: Ten studies, including a total of 562 patients, were included for brain injury, 4 studies with 229 patients for brain development, 15 studies with 1024 patients for neurodevelopment, 15 studies with 1168 patients for AKI, and 3 studies including 250 patients for NEC. The majority of the studies had a moderate to high risk of bias as assessed by the Cochrane Quality in Prognosis Studies tool. High heterogeneity in study populations and NIRS measurements was found. Data Synthesis: Of the studies we identified, 5 of 10 in brain injury, 3 of 4 in brain development, 10 of 15 in neurodevelopment, 9 of 15 in AKI, and 1 of 3 in NEC reported associations with rSO₂. No meta-analysis could be performed due to heterogeneity. Conclusions: Our findings highlight the need to improve methodological quality and reduce intra- and interstudy heterogeneity. Several methodological recommendations to improve future research were formulated.

Background: Critical congenital heart disease (cCHD)—requiring cardiac intervention in the first year of life for survival—occurs globally in 2-3 of every 1000 live births. In the critical perioperative period, intensive multimodal monitoring at a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is warranted, as their organs—especially the brain—may be severely injured due to hemodynamic and respiratory events. These 24/7 clinical data streams yield large quantities of high-frequency data, which are challenging in terms of interpretation due to the varying and dynamic physiology innate to cCHD. Through advanced data science algorithms, these dynamic data can be condensed into comprehensible information, reducing the cognitive load on the medical team and providing data-driven monitoring support through automated detection of clinical deterioration, which may facilitate timely intervention. Objective: This study aimed to develop a clinical deterioration detection algorithm for PICU patients with cCHD. Methods: Retrospectively, synchronous per-second data of cerebral regional oxygen saturation (rSO2) and 4 vital parameters (respiratory rate, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and invasive mean blood pressure) in neonates with cCHD admitted to the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, between 2002 and 2018 were extracted. Patients were stratified based on mean oxygen saturation during admission to account for physiological differences between acyanotic and cyanotic cCHD. Each subset was used to train our algorithm in classifying data as either stable, unstable, or sensor dysfunction. The algorithm was designed to detect combinations of parameters abnormal to the stratified subpopulation and significant deviations from the patient’s unique baseline, which were further analyzed to distinguish clinical improvement from deterioration. Novel data were used for testing, visualized in detail, and internally validated by pediatric intensivists. Results: A retrospective query yielded 4600 hours and 209 hours of per-second data in 78 and 10 neonates for, respectively, training and testing purposes. During testing, stable episodes occurred 153 times, of which 134 (88%) were correctly detected. Unstable episodes were correctly noted in 46 of 57 (81%) observed episodes. Twelve expert-confirmed unstable episodes were missed in testing. Time-percentual accuracy was 93% and 77% for, respectively, stable and unstable episodes. A total of 138 sensorial dysfunctions were detected, of which 130 (94%) were correct. Conclusions: In this proof-of-concept study, a clinical deterioration detection algorithm was developed and retrospectively evaluated to classify clinical stability and instability, achieving reasonable performance considering the heterogeneous population of neonates with cCHD. Combined analysis of baseline (ie, patient-specific) deviations and simultaneous parameter-shifting (ie, population-specific) proofs would be promising with respect to enhancing applicability to heterogeneous critically ill pediatric populations. After prospective validation, the current—and comparable—models may, in the future, be used in the automated detection of clinical deterioration and eventually provide data-driven monitoring support to the medical team, allowing for timely intervention.

BACKGROUND Critical congenital heart disease (cCHD)—requiring cardiac intervention in the first year of life for survival—occurs globally in 2-3 of every 1000 live births. In the critical perioperative period, intensive multimodal monitoring at a pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) is warranted, as their organs—especially the brain—may be severely injured due to hemodynamic and respiratory events. These 24/7 clinical data streams yield large quantities of high-frequency data, which are challenging in terms of interpretation due to the varying and dynamic physiology innate to cCHD. Through advanced data science algorithms, these dynamic data can be condensed into comprehensible information, reducing the cognitive load on the medical team and providing data-driven monitoring support through automated detection of clinical deterioration, which may facilitate timely intervention. OBJECTIVE This study aimed to develop a clinical deterioration detection algorithm for PICU patients with cCHD. METHODS Retrospectively, synchronous per-second data of cerebral regional oxygen saturation (rSO2) and 4 vital parameters (respiratory rate, heart rate, oxygen saturation, and invasive mean blood pressure) in neonates with cCHD admitted to the University Medical Center Utrecht, the Netherlands, between 2002 and 2018 were extracted. Patients were stratified based on mean oxygen saturation during admission to account for physiological differences between acyanotic and cyanotic cCHD. Each subset was used to train our algorithm in classifying data as either stable, unstable, or sensor dysfunction. The algorithm was designed to detect combinations of parameters abnormal to the stratified subpopulation and significant deviations from the patient’s unique baseline, which were further analyzed to distinguish clinical improvement from deterioration. Novel data were used for testing, visualized in detail, and internally validated by pediatric intensivists. RESULTS A retrospective query yielded 4600 hours and 209 hours of per-second data in 78 and 10 neonates for, respectively, training and testing purposes. During testing, stable episodes occurred 153 times, of which 134 (88%) were correctly detected. Unstable episodes were correctly noted in 46 of 57 (81%) observed episodes. Twelve expert-confirmed unstable episodes were missed in testing. Time-percentual accuracy was 93% and 77% for, respectively, stable and unstable episodes. A total of 138 sensorial dysfunctions were detected, of which 130 (94%) were correct. CONCLUSIONS In this proof-of-concept study, a clinical deterioration detection algorithm was developed and retrospectively evaluated to classify clinical stability and instability, achieving reasonable performance considering the heterogeneous population of neonates with cCHD. Combined analysis of baseline (ie, patient-specific) deviations and simultaneous parameter-shifting (ie, population-specific) proofs would be promising with respect to enhancing applicability to heterogeneous critically ill pediatric populations. After prospective validation, the current—and comparable—models may, in the future, be used in the automated detection of clinical deterioration and eventually provide data-driven monitoring support to the medical team, allowing for timely intervention.