Cerebrovascular Time Constant in Patients with Head Injury

The cerebrovascular time constant (τ) theoretically estimates how fast the cerebral arterial bed is filled by blood volume after a sudden change in arterial blood pressure during one cardiac cycle. The aim of this study was to assess the time constant of the cerebral arterial bed in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI) with and without intracranial hematomas (IH). We examined 116 patients with severe TBI (mean 35 ± 15 years, 61 men, 55 women). The first group included 58 patients without IH and the second group included 58 patients with epidural (7), subdural (48), and multiple (3) hematomas. Perfusion computed tomography (PCT) was performed 1-12 days after TBI in the first group and 2-8 days after surgical evacuation of the hematoma in the second group. Arteriovenous amplitude of regional cerebral blood volume oscillation was calculated as the difference between arterial and venous blood volume in the "region of interest" of 1 cm(2). Mean arterial pressure was measured and the flow rate of the middle cerebral artery was recorded with transcranial Doppler ultrasound after PCT. The time constant was calculated by the formula modified by Kasprowicz. The τ was shorter (p = 0.05) in both groups 1 and 2 in comparison with normal data. The time constant in group 2 was shorter than in group 1, both on the side of the former hematoma (р = 0.012) and on the contralateral side (р = 0.044). The results indicate failure of autoregulation of cerebral capillary blood flow in severe TBI, which increases in patients with polytrauma and traumatic IH.