Neurocritical care
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Approximately, five million people in the United States live with the residual effects of brain injury. The causes of acquired brain injury can be categorized as traumatic brain injury or non-traumatic brain injury. ⋯ Increase in arousal after zolpidem administration is seen in patients with vegetative state or minimally conscious state for treatment of restlessness and disturbances of their sleep-wake cycle. The use of zolpidem could be reasonable in select patients with neurologic injury but promising integrity of brain structures, such as intact deep and superficial gray matter structures and white matter connections.
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The manner in which brain death protocols in the United States address family objection to death by neurologic criteria has not been explored. ⋯ The majority of protocols reviewed did not mention how to handle circumstances in which families object to determination of brain death or discontinuation of organ support after brain death. The creation of guidelines on management of these complex situations may be helpful to prevent distress to families and hospital staff.
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Ictal-interictal continuum (IIC) continuous EEG (cEEG) patterns including periodic discharges and rhythmic delta activity are associated with poor outcome and in the appropriate clinical context, IIC patterns may represent "electroclinical" status epilepticus (SE). To clarify the significance of IIC patterns and their relationship to "electrographic" SE, we investigated FDG-PET imaging as a complementary metabolic biomarker of SE among patients with IIC patterns. ⋯ In hospitalized patients with IIC EEG patterns, FDG-PET hypermetabolism is common and is a candidate metabolic biomarker of electrographic SE or electroclinical SE.
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Malignant cerebral edema (CED) complicates at least 20 % of large hemispheric infarcts (LHI) and may result in neurological deterioration or death. Midline shift (MLS) is a standard but crude measure of edema severity. We propose that volumetric analysis of shifts in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) over time provides a reliable means of quantifying the spectrum of edema severity after LHI. ⋯ Volumetric CSF analysis reliably quantifies CED and distinguishes those with malignant edema and MLS from those with a more benign course after LHI. ∆CSF may provide an earlier and more sensitive indicator of edema severity across a broader dynamic range than MLS.
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Near infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) enables continuous monitoring of dynamic cerebrovascular autoregulation, but this methodology relies on invasive blood pressure monitoring (iABP). We evaluated the agreement between a NIRS based autoregulation index calculated from invasive blood pressure monitoring, and an entirely non-invasively derived autoregulation index from continuous non-invasive blood pressure monitoring (nABP) using the Finometer photoplethysmograph. ⋯ The results suggest that dynamic cerebrovascular autoregulation can be continuously assessed entirely non-invasively using nTOx. This allows for autoregulation assessment using spontaneous blood pressure fluctuations in conditions where iABP is not routinely monitored. The nABPOPT might deviate from iABPOPT, likely because of discordance between absolute nABP and iABP readings.