Brain blood volume and blood flow in patients with plateau waves

Plateau waves, characterized by acute transient rises of the intracranial pressure (ICP), are accompanied by a marked decrease of the cerebral perfusion pressure. Patients with plateau waves, however, often show no clinical symptoms of ischemia of the brain stem, such as vasopressor response or impairment of consciousness during the waves. The authors studied brain blood volume and blood flow with dynamic computerized tomography using rapid-sequence scanning in patients with plateau waves identified during continuous ICP recording. Following an intravenous bolus injection of contrast medium, density-versus-time curves were obtained for the regions of interest; that is, the frontal lobe, the temporal lobe, the caudate nucleus, the putamen, and the pons. The dynamic studies were undertaken when the ICP was high during a plateau-wave phase and when it was low during an interval phase between two plateau waves. The results indicate that, in the cerebral hemisphere (frontal lobe, temporal lobe, caudate nucleus, and putamen), plateau waves were accompanied by an increase in blood volume and, at the same time, a decrease in blood flow. In the pons, however, both the blood volume and blood flow showed little change during plateau waves as compared with the intervals between two plateau waves. These observations may explain why there is no rise in the systemic blood pressure and why patients are often alert during plateau waves.