Cyclic CSF Pressure Waves Causally Relate to Systemic Arterial Blood Pressure

Abstract

We have previously observed CSF pressure waves to be a function of unstable cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) interacting with intracranial hypertension. This interaction has required intact autoregulation in order to describe the findings which we have reported. In developing the vasodilatory cascade model of ICP pressure wave generation, it became clear that any stimulus capable of decrementing CPP would lead to the generation of a CSF pressure wave and activation of the cascade model. However, when cyclic CSF pressure waves occurred, we suspected that the only etiology was likely to be variations in the systemic arterial blood pressure.