Neurocritical care
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Randomized Controlled Trial
Correlation of Cerebral and Subcutaneous Glycerol in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury and Association with Tissue Damage.
This study is a substudy of a prospective consecutive double-blinded randomized study on the effect of prostacyclin in severe traumatic brain injury (sTBI). The aims of the present study were to investigate whether there was a correlation between brain and subcutaneous glycerol levels and whether the ratio of interstitial glycerol in the brain and subcutaneous tissue (glycerolbrain/sc) was associated with tissue damage in the brain, measured by using the Rotterdam score, S-100B, neuron-specific enolase (NSE), the Injury Severity Score (ISS), the Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation Score (APACHE II), and trauma type. A potential association with clinical outcome was explored. ⋯ We have shown that peripheral glycerol may flux into the brain. This effect is associated with worse brain tissue damage. This flux complicates the interpretation of brain interstitial glycerol levels. We remind the clinicians that a damaged blood-brain barrier, as seen in sTBI, may alter the concentrations of various substances, including glycerol in the brain. Awareness of this is important in the interpretation of the data bedside as well in research.
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Observational Study
Intracerebral Proinflammatory Cytokine Increase in Surgically Evacuated Intracerebral Hemorrhage: A Microdialysis Study.
Treatment options for spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) are limited. A possible inflammatory response in the brain tissue surrounding an ICH may exacerbate the initial injury and could be a target for treatment of subsequent secondary brain injury. The study objective was to compare levels of inflammatory mediators in the interstitial fluid of the perihemorrhagic zone (PHZ) and in seemingly normal cortex (SNX) in the acute phase after surgical evacuation of ICH, with the hypothesis being that a difference could be demonstrated between the PHZ and the SNX. ⋯ Higher levels of both proinflammatory and anti-inflammatory cytokines in the perihemorrhagic brain tissue implies a complex role for inflammatory mediators in the secondary injury cascades following ICH surgery, suggesting a need for targeted pharmacological interventions.
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Establishing whether a patient who survived a cardiac arrest has suffered hypoxic-ischemic brain injury (HIBI) shortly after return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) can be of paramount importance for informing families and identifying patients who may benefit the most from neuroprotective therapies. We hypothesize that using deep transfer learning on normal-appearing findings on head computed tomography (HCT) scans performed after ROSC would allow us to identify early evidence of HIBI. ⋯ Deep transfer learning used to evaluate normal-appearing findings on HCT scans obtained early after ROSC in comatose survivors of cardiac arrest accurately identifies patients who progress to show radiographic evidence of HIBI on follow-up HCT scans.
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Angiographic vasospasm after aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (aSAH) is associated with delayed cerebral ischemia (DCI)-related cerebral infarction (radiological DCI) and worsened neurological outcome. Transcranial Doppler (TCD) measurements of cerebral blood flow velocity are commonly used after aSAH to screen for vasospasm; however, their association with cerebral infarction is not well characterized. We sought to determine whether time-varying TCD-measured vasospasm severity is associated with cerebral infarction and investigate the performance characteristics of different time/severity cutoffs for predicting cerebral infarction. ⋯ TCD-measured vasospasm severity is associated with radiological DCI after aSAH. An early, mild TCD-based vasospasm severity threshold had a high negative predictive value, supporting its role as a screening tool to identify at-risk patients.
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Our objective was to evaluate the use of event-related potentials and the middle-latency somatosensory evoked potential (MLSEP) for the prediction of awakening in coma, determine the evaluation day that evoked potentials (EPs) best predict an awakening outcome, and determine whether the mismatch negativity (MMN) combined with the MLSEP, when recorded at 7 days after coma, improved the prediction of awakening from coma. ⋯ The N60 and MMN were the strongest prognostic factors for an awakening outcome. Furthermore, at 7 days after coma onset, the combination of the N60 and MMN improved the prediction of an awakening outcome in patients who were comatose.