Vascular Pressure Reactivity Research Articles

Patient's Clinical Presentation and CPPopt Availability: Any Association?

The 'optimal' CPP (CPPopt) concept is based on the vascular pressure reactivity index (PRx). The feasibility and effectiveness of CPPopt guided therapy in severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients is currently being investigated prospectively in the COGiTATE trial. At the moment there is no clear evidence that certain admission and treatment characteristics are associated with CPPopt availability (yield). To test the relation between patients' admission and treatment characteristics and the average CPPopt yield. Retrospective analysis of 230 patients from the CENTER-TBI high-resolution database with intracranial pressure (ICP) measured using an intraparenchymal probe. CPPopt was calculated using the algorithm set for the COGiTATE study. CPPopt yield was defined as the percentage of CPP monitored time (%) when CPPopt is available. The variables in the statistical model included age, admission Glasgow Coma Scale (GCS), gender, pupil response, hypoxia and hypotension at the scene, Marshall computed tomography (CT) score, decompressive craniectomy, injury severity score score and 24-h therapeutic intensity level (TIL) score. The median CPPopt yield was 80.7% (interquartile range 70.9-87.4%). None of the selected variables showed a significant statistical correlation with the CPPopt yield. In this retrospective multicenter study, none of the selected admission and treatment variables were related to the CPPopt yield.

Non-linear Dynamical Analysis of Intraspinal Pressure Signal Predicts Outcome After Spinal Cord Injury.

The injured spinal cord is a complex system influenced by many local and systemic factors that interact over many timescales. To help guide clinical management, we developed a technique that monitors intraspinal pressure from the injury site in patients with acute, severe traumatic spinal cord injuries. Here, we hypothesize that spinal cord injury alters the complex dynamics of the intraspinal pressure signal quantified by computing hourly the detrended fluctuation exponent alpha, multiscale entropy, and maximal Lyapunov exponent lambda. 49 patients with severe traumatic spinal cord injuries were monitored within 72 h of injury for 5 days on average to produce 5,941 h of intraspinal pressure data. We computed the spinal cord perfusion pressure as mean arterial pressure minus intraspinal pressure and the vascular pressure reactivity index as the running correlation coefficient between intraspinal pressure and arterial blood pressure. Mean patient follow-up was 17 months. We show that alpha values are greater than 0.5, which indicates that the intraspinal pressure signal is fractal. As alpha increases, intraspinal pressure decreases and spinal cord perfusion pressure increases with negative correlation between the vascular pressure reactivity index vs. alpha. Thus, secondary insults to the injured cord disrupt intraspinal pressure fractality. Our analysis shows that high intraspinal pressure, low spinal cord perfusion pressure, and impaired pressure reactivity strongly correlate with reduced multi-scale entropy, supporting the notion that secondary insults to the injured cord cause de-complexification of the intraspinal pressure signal, which may render the cord less adaptable to external changes. Healthy physiological systems are characterized by edge of chaos dynamics. We found negative correlations between the percentage of hours with edge of chaos dynamics (−0.01 ≤ lambda ≤ 0.01) vs. high intraspinal pressure and vs. low spinal cord perfusion pressure; these findings suggest that secondary insults render the intraspinal pressure more regular or chaotic. In a multivariate logistic regression model, better neurological status on admission, higher intraspinal pressure multi-scale entropy and more frequent edge of chaos intraspinal pressure dynamics predict long-term functional improvement. We conclude that spinal cord injury is associated with marked changes in non-linear intraspinal pressure metrics that carry prognostic information.

An effective model of cerebrovascular pressure reactivity and blood flow autoregulation

Understanding cerebral blood flow dynamics is crucial for the care of patients at risk of poor cerebral perfusion. We describe an effective model of cerebral hemodynamics designed to reveal important macroscopic features of cerebral blood flow without having to resolve the detailed microvasculature of the brain. Based on principles of fluid and elastic dynamics and vascular pressure-reactivity, the model quantifies the physical means by which the vasculature executes autoregulatory reflexes. We demonstrate that the frequency response of the proposed model matches experimental measurements and explains the influence of mechanical factors on the autoregulatory performance. Analysis of the model indicates the existence of an optimal mean arterial pressure which minimizes the sensitivity of the flow to changes in perfusion pressure across the frequency spectrum of physiological oscillations. We highlight the simplicity of the model and its potential to improve monitoring of brain perfusion via real-time computational simulations of cerebro- and cardio-vascular interventions.

Further Controversies About Brain Tissue Oxygenation Pressure-Reactivity After Traumatic Brain Injury

Continuous monitoring of cerebral autoregulation is considered clinically useful due to its ability to warn against brain ischemic insults, which may translate to a relationship with adverse outcome. It is typically performed using the pressure reactivity index (PRx) based on mean arterial pressure and intracranial pressure. A new ORx index based on brain tissue oxygenation and cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) has been proposed that similarly allows for evaluation of cerebrovascular reactivity. Conflicting results exist concerning its clinical utility. Retrospective analysis was performed in 85 patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). ORx was calculated using three time windows of 5, 20, and 60min. Correlation coefficients and individual "optimal CPP" (CPPopt) were calculated using both PRx and ORx, and relation to patient outcome investigated. Correlation coefficients for all comparisons between PRx and ORx indicated poor association between these indices (range from -0.04 to 0.07). PRx was significantly lower in patients with good outcome (p=0.01), while none of the ORx indices proved to be significantly different in the two outcome groups. Higher mortality related to average CPP<CPPopt was found regardless of which index was used to calculate CPPopt. In the TBI setting, ORx does not appear to correlate with vascular pressure reactivity as assessed with PRx. Its potential use for individualizing CPP thresholds remains unclear.

103 Expansion Duroplasty Improves Intraspinal Pressure, Spinal Cord Perfusion Pressure, and Vascular Pressure Reactivity Index in Patients With Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

103 Expansion Duroplasty Improves Intraspinal Pressure, Spinal Cord Perfusion Pressure, and Vascular Pressure Reactivity Index in Patients With Traumatic Spinal Cord Injury

Optimal cerebral perfusion pressure: are we ready for it?

Objectives: Cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP)-oriented therapy and the Lund concept lie on opposite ends of the CPP scale, in the management of head injury. Optimization of CPP by monitoring cerebral vascular pressure reactivity is an alternative approach that may reconcile these two divergent approaches, preventing both injurious hypotension and hypertension with an individualized CPP target.Methods: Indices describing cerebral vascular reactivity or cerebral blood flow autoregulation, derived from intracranial pressure, near-infrared spectroscopy, or transcranial Doppler are reviewed in this manuscript.Results: Indices of cerebrovascular reactivity and autoregulation typically converge to a U-shape curve when viewed as a function of CPP, with the best reactivity metrics indicating optimal CPP. In a retrospective study of prospectively collected data from head-injured patients, Steiner et al. demonstrated that a greater distance between averaged over total monitoring time-CPP and optimal CPP, correlated with unfavourable outcome. A recent study of 300 head-injured patients (2003–2009) showed that hypotension below optimal CPP was associated with greater mortality rate, while hypertension above optimal CPP was associated with an increase in severe disability.Discussion: Pilot studies indicating feasibility of autoregulation-oriented CPP optimization have been performed in adult and paediatric traumatic brain injury, aneurysmal subarachnoid haemorrhage, and in patients undergoing cardiothoracic surgery. It remains to be prospectively demonstrated whether optimal CPP management is able to improve outcome.

104 Cerebral Autoregulation in the Newborn

Vascular pressure reactivity is the ability of vascular smooth muscle to respond to changes in transmural pressure. In the cerebral circulation this reactivity - or autoregulation - limits cerebral blood...

Monitoring of cerebral autoregulation in head-injured patients.

Disturbed cerebral autoregulation has been reported to correlate with an unfavorable outcome after head injury. Using transcranial Doppler ultrasonography, we investigated whether hemodynamic responses to spontaneous variations of cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) provide reliable information on cerebral autoregulatory reserve. We studied 82 patients with head injury daily. Waveforms of intracranial pressure (ICP), arterial pressure, and transcranial Doppler flow velocity (FV) were captured during 2-hour periods. Time-averaged mean FV (FVm) and the FV during cardiac systole (FVs) were resolved. The correlation coefficient indices between FVm and CPP (Mx) and between FVs and CPP (Sx) during spontaneous fluctuations of CPP were calculated during 3-minute epochs and averaged for each investigation. Mx and Sx correlated with CPP (r = -.34, P = < .002; r = -.2, P = NS. respectively), with ICP (r = .46, P < .0001; r = .34, P < .003, respectively), with admission Glasgow Coma Scale score (r = -.34, P < .0025; r = -.38, P < .0008, respectively), and with outcome after head injury (r = .41, P < .0002; r = .48, P < .00009, respectively). In patients who died, cerebral autoregulation was severely disturbed during the first 2 days after injury. Indices derived from spontaneous fluctuations of FV waveform and CPP describe cerebral vascular pressure reactivity. They correlate with outcome after head injury and therefore may be used to guide autoregulation-oriented intensive therapy.