Neurocritical care
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Noncontrast computed tomography (CT) markers are increasingly used for predicting hematoma expansion. The aim of our study was to investigate the predictive value of expansion-prone hematoma in predicting hematoma expansion and outcome in patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). ⋯ Expansion-prone hematoma seems to be a better predictor than any single noncontrast CT marker for predicting hematoma expansion and poor outcome. Considering the high risk of hematoma expansion in these patients, expansion-prone hematoma may be a potential therapeutic target for anti-expansion treatment in future clinical studies.
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The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) Common Data Elements (CDEs) have been generated to standardize and define terms used by the scientific community. The widespread use of these CDEs promotes harmonized data collection in clinical research. The aim of the NINDS Unruptured Intracranial Aneurysms (UIA) and Subarachnoid Hemorrhage (SAH), and Subject Characteristics working group (WG) was to identify, define, and classify CDEs describing the characteristics of patients diagnosed with an UIA and SAH. Thus, "Participant/Subject characteristics" is a set of factors defining a population of selected individuals and allowing comparisons with a reference population and overtime. ⋯ These CDEs would allow the development of best practice guidelines to standardize the assessment and reporting of observations concerning UIA and SAH.
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Multicenter Study
Neurostereologic Lesion Volumes and Spreading Depolarizations in Severe Traumatic Brain Injury Patients: A Pilot Study.
Spreading depolarizations (SDs) occur in 50-60% of patients after surgical treatment of severe traumatic brain injury (TBI) and are independently associated with unfavorable outcomes. Here we performed a pilot study to examine the relationship between SDs and various types of intracranial lesions, progression of parenchymal damage, and outcomes. ⋯ These results suggest that subarachnoid and subdural blood are important primary injury factors in provoking SDs and that clustered SDs and parenchymal lesion expansion contribute independently to worse patient outcomes. These results warrant future prospective studies using detailed quantification of TBI lesion types to better understand the relationship between anatomic and physiologic measures of secondary injury.
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Cerebral microdialysis (CMD) is a valuable tool for monitoring compounds in the cerebral extracellular fluid (ECF). Glycerol is one such compound which is regarded as a marker of cell membrane decomposition. Notably, in some acutely brain-injured patients, CMD-glycerol levels rise without any other apparent indication of cerebral deterioration. The aim of this study was to investigate whether this could be due to an association between CMD-glycerol levels and the administration of glycerol-containing drugs. ⋯ Glycerol-containing drugs routinely administered intravenously in the clinical setting appear to have a minimal and clinically insignificant effect on levels of glycerol in the cerebral ECF.