Continuous monitoring of the complexity of intracranial pressure after head injury

Abstract

Multiscale entropy (MSE) has been increasingly used to investigate the complexity of biological signals. Our previous study demonstrated that the complexity of mean intracranial pressure (ICP), assessed by MSE based on the whole recording periods, is associated with the outcome after traumatic brain injury (TBI). To improve the feasibility of MSE in a clinical setting, this study examined whether the complexity of ICP waveforms based on shorter periods could be a reliable predictor of the outcome in patients with TBI. Results showed that the complexity of ICP slow waves, calculated in 3-h moving windows, correlates with the outcome of patients with TBI. Thus, the complexity of ICP may be a promising index to be incorporated into multimodal monitoring in patients with TBI.