Cerebral haemodynamics during experimental intracranial hypertension

Joseph Donnelly*, Marek Czosnyka, Spencer Harland, Georgios V. Varsos, Danilo Cardim, Chiara Robba, Xiuyun Liu, Philip N. Ainslie, Peter Smielewski

*Corresponding author for this work

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    11 Citations (Scopus)

    Abstract

    Intracranial hypertension is a common final pathway in many acute neurological conditions. However, the cerebral haemodynamic response to acute intracranial hypertension is poorly understood. We assessed cerebral haemodynamics (arterial blood pressure, intracranial pressure, laser Doppler flowmetry, basilar artery Doppler flow velocity, and vascular wall tension) in 27 basilar artery-dependent rabbits during experimental (artificial CSF infusion) intracranial hypertension. From baseline (∼9 mmHg; SE 1.5) to moderate intracranial pressure (∼41 mmHg; SE 2.2), mean flow velocity remained unchanged (47 to 45 cm/s; p = 0.38), arterial blood pressure increased (88.8 to 94.2 mmHg; p < 0.01), whereas laser Doppler flowmetry and wall tension decreased (laser Doppler flowmetry 100 to 39.1% p < 0.001; wall tension 19.3 to 9.8 mmHg, p < 0.001). From moderate to high intracranial pressure (∼75 mmHg; SE 3.7), both mean flow velocity and laser Doppler flowmetry decreased (45 to 31.3 cm/s p < 0.001, laser Doppler flowmetry 39.1 to 13.3%, p < 0.001), arterial blood pressure increased still further (94.2 to 114.5 mmHg; p < 0.001), while wall tension was unchanged (9.7 to 9.6 mmHg; p = 0.35).This animal model of acute intracranial hypertension demonstrated two intracranial pressure-dependent cerebroprotective mechanisms: with moderate increases in intracranial pressure, wall tension decreased, and arterial blood pressure increased, while with severe increases in intracranial pressure, an arterial blood pressure increase predominated. Clinical monitoring of such phenomena could help individualise the management of neurocritical patients.

    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)694-705
    Number of pages12
    JournalJournal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism
    Volume37
    Issue number2
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 1 Jan 2017

    Keywords

    • cerebral blood flow
    • cerebral haemodynamics
    • Intracranial hypertension
    • intracranial pressure
    • pressure reactivity
    • vascular function

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