This proposal is for a multi-centre collaborative clinical study to reconsider and further refine the criteria of full-term neonatal encephalopathy initially defined in 1976 by Sarnat and Sarnat. Its suggestions are intended as a template for prospective study to be followed by clinical application. Precise criteria and good inter-observer reliability are important for application to modern therapeutic decisions that did not exist in 1976, such as identification of infants who will benefit from therapeutic hypothermia. Modern diagnostic technology that also did not exist in 1976 also require correlation: advanced neuroimaging, continuous EEG with video monitoring and aEEG, metabolic/genetic and modern neuropathological techniques to examine brain tissue of infants who do not survive. Advanced technology is not recommended as basic criteria in a revised Sarnat grading scale but rather are considered supplementary to clinical grading. This grading is designed for clinical description of the state of encephalopathy at a given moment. Whereas perinatal and intrapartum hypoxic-ischaemic encephalopathy remain the principal cause, the scale remains applicable to other non-progressive etiologies.

该提案是一项多中心协作临床研究，以重新考虑并进一步完善由 Sarnat 和 Sarnat 于 1976 年最初定义的足月新生儿脑病的标准。其建议旨在作为临床应用遵循的前瞻性研究的模板。精确的标准和良好的观察者间可靠性对于应用于 1976 年不存在的现代治疗决策很重要，例如识别将从治疗性低温中受益的婴儿。1976 年也不存在的现代诊断技术也需要相关性：先进的神经影像学、具有视频监控和 aEEG 的连续脑电图、代谢/遗传和现代神经病理学技术来检查无法存活的婴儿的脑组织。在修订后的 Sarnat 分级量表中，不建议将先进技术作为基本标准，而是将其视为临床分级的补充。该分级旨在对特定时刻的脑病状态进行临床描述。尽管围产期和产时缺氧缺血性脑病仍然是主要原因，但该量表仍然适用于其他非进行性病因。