Lumbar cerebrospinal fluid pressure waves versus intracranial pressure waves in idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus.

The aim of this study was to explore how the lumbar cerebrospinal fluid pressure (CSFP) waves recorded during lumbar infusion compared with the intracranial pressure (ICP) waves recorded, either during lumbar infusion or during long-term, overnight monitoring. For this purpose, we assessed 27 simultaneous lumbar CSFP/ICP recordings made during lumbar infusion and 27 long-term, overnight ICP recordings in 27 consecutive idiopathic normal pressure hydrocephalus (iNPH) patients. Pressure waves during lumbar infusion were explored by computing pulse pressure amplitude and mean single wave pressure of every corresponding CSFP/ICP wave pair; among our 27 lumbar CSFP/ICP recordings a total of 35,532 CSFP/ICP wave pairs were available for analysis. We as well computed mean values of pulse pressure amplitude (i.e. mean CSFP wave amplitude or mean ICP wave amplitude) and mean values of mean single wave pressure (i.e. mean CSFP or mean ICP) during consecutive 6-s time windows, as well as average values for the individual recordings. During lumbar infusion, the cerebrospinal fluid pulse pressure amplitudes were about 2 mmHg smaller than the corresponding intracranial pulse pressure amplitudes. The mean CSFP wave amplitudes recorded during lumbar infusion correlated significantly with the mean ICP wave amplitudes recorded either during lumbar infusion or during long-term, overnight ICP monitoring. In 21 of 27 lumbar infusion tests (78%), the presence of elevated lumbar mean CSFP waves was related to presence of elevated mean ICP wave amplitudes during long-term, overnight ICP monitoring. Hence, the lumbar cerebrospinal fluid pulse pressure amplitudes recorded during lumbar infusion could be used to predict the intracranial pulse pressure amplitudes recorded during long-term, overnight ICP monitoring.