Additional file 1.

Permission to redraw Fig. 3 from [5]. The CNS pressure volume curve. The curve has three zones, a flat zone expressing good compensatory reserve, an exponential zone, depicting poor compensatory reserve and a final zone seen at very high ICP depicting derangement of normal cerebrovascular responses. In [5] it is shown that pulse amplitude increases linearly with mean intracranial pressure in the zone of poor compensatory reserve. The graph is redrawn to suggest that this phase corresponds to a phase of reduced compliance when pulsation caused by blood flow under the influence of autoregulation is detectable. At low pressure pulsations are less evident because of compliance and at the highest pressure pulsatility decreases as arterial and venous flow is compromised.

Format: DOC Size: 2.8MB Download file

This file can be viewed with: Microsoft Word Viewer

Williams Cerebrospinal Fluid Research 2008 5:7   doi:10.1186/1743-8454-5-7