Apparatus and method for determining intracranial pressure and local cerebral blood flow

摘要

An intracranial probe to monitor both intracranial pressure and blood flow by thermal diffusion and hydrogen clearance techniques. The probe includes a casing or housing having internal bore which houses a reciprocal piston. The casing is provided with pressure port for commuting pressure to a remote pressure monitor. A pair of platinum or platinum alloy plates are associated with the two terminal integrated circuit which produces an output current proportional to the absolute temperature of the probe contact plate with which temperature transducer is associated. One temperature transducer monitors the temperature of the cold plate of the probe and the other monitors that of the hot plate. The signals are processed at a differentially amplified and fed to a monitor. In addition, the current generated by the platinum contact plates provides an input to a hydrogen clearance monitor to simultaneously determine blood flow by this technique.