NEW YORK – In recent years, scientists have learned that some patients believed to be in a vegetative state actually have some awareness and that they might be able to communicate. Now, a new study suggests a portable brain monitor can detect signs of this, perhaps making it possible someday for doctors to easily double-check the diagnosis at the bedside.
Researchers used an EEG machine to examine brain waves and found that three of 16 vegetative patients could understand what they heard and follow instructions.
EEG machines are far more common and less expensive than the large functional MRI scanners that have shown awareness in some vegetative patients in previous studies. So they could be set up in a patient’s room, avoiding logistical problems that can make it dangerous or impossible to have a vegetative patient scanned at an fMRI facility, researchers said.
“We can take this assessment out into the community, to the patients. … We can go to that bedside and find out what level of awareness they still have,” said Damian Cruse, of the University of Western Ontario in Canada, an author of the report.
The technique might also provide a way for some vegetative patients to communicate. That could enable
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