Correlation Between Cerebral Autoregulation and Carbon Dioxide Reactivity in Patients with Traumatic Brain Injury

Cerebral blood flow autoregulation is commonly impaired in patients with traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study was to investigate correlations between cerebral autoregulation and CO2 reactivity in patients with TBI during transient mild hypocapnia.

Patients with TBI who were on mechanical ventilation were hyperventilated for approximately 60 min. Indices of autoregulation, based on a model of the relationship between arterial blood pressure and blood flow velocity (FV) (ARIabp) and, separately, between cerebral perfusion pressure and FV (ARIcpp), were calculated. Mean flow index (Mx) was also calculated.

We investigated 31 consecutive patients. At baseline, median PaCO2 was 5.09 kPa (range 4.30-5.67 kPa); during hyperventilation, median PaCO2 was 4.38 kPa (range 3.72-4.96 kPa). ARI was associated with Mx (ARIabp vs. Mx: r = -0.39, p = 0.04; ARIcpp vs Mx: r = -0.67, p < 0.001). CO2 reactivity showed significant correlation with ARIcpp (r = 0.41, p = 0.04) and Mx (r = -0.37, p = 0.04). ARI after hyperventilation was significantly higher than ARI at baseline (ARIcpp: p = 0.02; ARIabp: p < 0.001).

Cerebral autoregulation seemed to be well linked to CO2 reactivity during transient hyperventilation. ARIcpp had a stronger correlation with CO2 reactivity than ARIabp. ARI indicated improvement of autoregulation during hyperventilation. Cerebral autoregulation indices (ARI, Mx) were associated with each other.