Current methods to measure cerebral blood flow (CBF) in the neuro critical care setting cannot monitor the CBF continuously. In contrast, continuous measurement of intracranial pressure (ICP) is readily accomplished, and there is a component of ICP that correlates with arterial inflow of blood into the cranial cavity. This property may have utility in using continuous ICP curve analysis to continuously estimate CBF. We examined the data from 13 patients, monitored with an intraventricular ICP

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... vice determining the pulsatile amplitude ICP amp as well as the area under the ICP curve (AUC ICP ). Using an elastance measurement, the ICP curve was converted to craniospinal volume (AUC ΔV ). The patients were examined with Phase Contrast Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), measuring flow in the carotid and vertebral arteries. This made it possible to calculate CBF for one cardiac cycle (ccCBF MRtot ) and divide it into the pulsatile (ccCBF MRpuls ) and non-pulsatile (ccCBF MRconst ) flow. ICP derived data and MRI measurements were compared. Linear regression was used to establish wellness of fit and ANOVA was used to calculate the P value. No correlation was found between ICP amp and the ccICP MRpuls (P = 0.067). In contrast there was a correlation between the AUC ICP and ccCBF MRpuls (R 2 = 0.440 P = 0.013). The AUC ΔV correlated more appropriately with the ccCBF MRpuls . (R 2 = 0.688 P < 0.001). Our findings suggests that the pulsatile part of the intracranial pressure curve, especially when transformed into a volume curve, correlates to the pulsatile part of the CBF.