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Updated: Feb 13, 2026

Real-Time Monitoring of Neurocritical Patients with Diffuse Optical Spectroscopies
Published on: November 19, 2020
Cortical Spreading Depression and Ischemia in Neurocritical Patients
Néstor Wainsztein1, Federico Rodríguez Lucci2
1Department of Internal Medicine, Neurocritical Care Unit, Institute of Neurological Research, FLENI, Montañeses 2325, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Abstract:
Spreading depolarization in cerebral cortex is associated with swelling of neurons, distortion of dendritic spines, massive ion translocation with a large change of the slow electrical potential, and silencing of brain electrical activity. The term spreading depression represents a wave of spontaneous activity of the electrocorticogram that propagates through contiguous cerebral gray matter at a characteristic velocity. Spreading depression is a consequence of cortical spreading depolarization. Therefore, spreading depolarization is not always accompanied by spreading depression and the terms are not synonymous.
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