A METHOD FOR A SIMULATION OF CONTINUOUS INTRACRANIAL-PRESSURE CURVES

The study introduces a method to simulate continuously an intracranial pressure (ICP) wave form. In a system analysis approach the intracran ial compartment was viewed as a black box with arterial blood pressure (ABP) as an input signal and ICP as an output. A weight function was used to transform the ABP curve into the ICP curve. The output ICP wav eform was generated using a weight function derived from the transcran ial Doppler blood flow velocity (FV) and ABP curves. In order to estab lish the relationship between TCD characteristics and weight functions simultaneous recordings of FV, ABP, and ICP curves of a defined group of patients were used. A linear function between the TCD characterist ics and the weight functions was obtained by calculating a series of m ultiple regression analyses. Given examples demonstrate the procedure' s capabilities in predicting the mean ICP, the pulse and respiratory w aveform modulations, and the trends of ICP changes. (C) 1998 Academic Press.