INTRODUCTION: Previous research on disorders of consciousness (DOC) phenomena indicated significant changes in circadian activity and sleep architecture that correlated with patient’s diagnosis. Although polysomnography seems to provide a valuable tool in assessing consciousness level, the main obstacle is the absence of specific staging criteria in scoring sleep patterns of patients with DOC and the inaccuracy of neuropsychological diagnosis. AIM(S): The aim of the study was to identify potential quantitative EEG indices in polysomnographic sleep patterns in patients regaining consciousness with main focus on slow wave activity regulation (SWA) and sleep spindles. Besides visual scoring of PSG recordings, we also performed an automatic SWA and sleep spindles detection and parametrization based on the matching pursuit (MP) algorithm. METHOD(S): Preliminary results of one MCS patient are presented. Overnight multichannel EEG recordings and neuropsychological examination with Coma Recovery Scale-Revised (CRS-R) were performed every 2 months during patient’s one-year stay in a model hospital for children with severe brain damages. Each recording was visually scored by an expert with modified AASM sleep scoring criteria, adjusted to specific characteristics of pediatric DOC sleep patterns. We also performed automatic analysis of EEG sleep profiles based on the MP algorithm. RESULTS: Overall, the overnight EEG profiles of SWA and sleep spindles correlated with visual scores and neuropsychological assessment with CRS-R. Apart from that, for one patient (whose data are hereby presented), some of the SWA and sleep spindles characteristics preceded improvement in the CRS‑R diagnosis. These effects were not clearly detectable in the visual assessment of the polysomnograms. CONCLUSIONS: Preliminary results indicate that automatic parametrization of sleep structures, obtained from the MP algorithm, might provide a valuable tool in monitoring patient’s consciousness level during the rehabilitation process. FINANCIAL SUPPORT: This research was supported by the Polish National Science Centre grant 2015/17/N/ ST7/03769.
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