Early Detection of Brain Damage in Children With Congenital Heart Disease After Cardiovascular Surgery
Early Detection of Brain Damage in Children With Congenital Heart Disease After Cardiovascular Surgery
Infants with congenital heart disease undergoing cardiac surgery with extracorporeal circulation are at risk for perioperative hypoxic-ischaemic brain injury. This prospective, single-centre observational cohort study will evaluate perioperative dynamics of serum biomarkers of neuronal, glial, and axonal injury and relate biomarker patterns to postoperative EEG changes and brain MRI findings, aiming to improve early detection of brain injury and identify children at higher risk of hypoxic encephalopathy.
This prospective observational study will enrol 30 children up to 1 year of age with congenital heart disease requiring surgery with extracorporeal circulation at a single paediatric intensive care centre. After parental/guardian consent, peripheral blood will be collected for ELISA measurement of secretoneurin, GFAP, neuron-specific enolase, S100B, UCHL-1, neurofilament light chain, and total tau at the following time points: within 24 hours preoperatively; 1 hour after arrival from the operating theatre; and 24, 48, 72, 96 hours and 7 days postoperatively. All participants will undergo EEG within the first 24 hours and on postoperative day 7. Between postoperative week 1 and week 2, 15 participants will undergo brain MRI under sedation or general anaesthesia. Perioperative and postoperative clinical variables will be abstracted (e.g., cardiopulmonary bypass duration, major artery clamp duration, inotrope/vasoactive support, arrhythmias, and markers of organ hypoperfusion including lactate and regional oxygen saturation). Associations between biomarker trajectories and EEG/MRI evidence of brain injury will be assessed using repeated-measures modelling; ROC analyses will explore biomarker thresholds where applicable.
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