OBJECTIVE After brain injury intracranial hypertension is the major cause of mortality, in addition to the possibility of functional, behavioral and cognitive sequels. Scarcity of studies on the effects of respiratory physiotherapy on these patients may lead to contradictory performances. This study aimed to assess the effects of customary respiratory physiotherapy maneuvers on intracranial and...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE For treatment of acute stroke, drug therapy administered systemically has been unreliable due to inadequate delivery of drug into ischemic tissue. We have developed a new method to deliver drugs into the ischemic tissue by retrograde perfusion of the cerebral vein. METHODS We examined in rats the effectiveness of administering verapamil into ischemic tissue by retrograd...

Changes in cerebral blood flow with increasing intracranial pressure were studied in anaesthetized baboons during expansion of a subdural balloon in one of two different sites. With an infratentorial balloon, cerebral blood flow bore no clear relation to intracranial pressure, but was linearly related to cerebral perfusion pressure. Apart from an initial change in some animals, cerebrovascular ...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Dynamic CT perfusion imaging is a rapid and widely available method for assessing cerebral hemodynamics in the setting of ischemia. Nevertheless, little is known about perfusion parameters within regions of diffusion abnormality. Since MR diffusion-weighted (DW) imaging is widely considered the most sensitive and specific technique to examine the ischemic core, new knowle...

Heat-related decreases in cerebral perfusion are partly the result of ventilatory-related reductions in arterial CO2 tension. Cerebral perfusion likely contributes to an individual's tolerance to a challenge like lower body negative pressure (LBNP). Thus increasing cerebral perfusion may prolong LBNP tolerance. This study tested the hypothesis that a hypercapnia-induced increase in cerebral per...

Acute ischemic stroke therapy emphasizes early arterial clot lysis or removal. Partial aortic occlusion has recently emerged as an alternative hemodynamic approach to augment cerebral perfusion in acute ischemic stroke. The exact mechanism of cerebral flow augmentation with partial aortic occlusion remains unclear and may involve more than simple diversion of arterial blood flow from the lower ...

This article forms part of our 'Tests and results' series for 2013, which aims to provide information about common tests that general practitioners order regularly. It considers areas such as indications, what to tell the patient, what the test can and cannot tell you, and interpretation of the results.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Assessment of perfusion parameters is important in the selection of patients who are most likely to benefit from revascularization after an acute ischemic stroke. The aim of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of measuring cerebral perfusion parameters with the use of a novel high-speed C-arm CT acquisition in conjunction with a single intravenous injection of cont...