Correlation of transcranial Doppler based parameters with computed tomography assessed cerebral oedema score in patients with traumatic brain injury: A prospective observational study

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: Cerebral oedema and increased intracranial pressure are associated with poor neurological outcomes in traumatic brain injury (TBI). This study aimed to examine the correlation between transcranial doppler (TCD) derived indices and computed tomography assessed cerebral oedema score in patients with TBI. METHODS: This prospective observational study was conducted between April 2021 and December 2021 after approval from the University Research Ethics Committee (R75/2021) and registration with the clinicaltrials.gov (NCT04834453). Cerebral oedema on computed tomography (CT) imaging of the brain was scored as (0 = no cerebral oedema, 1 = mild cerebral oedema, 2 = moderate cerebral oedema, and 3 = severe cerebral oedema). The daily neurological assessment was performed using Glasgow coma scale score. TCD-based parameters, mean flow velocity (MFV), and pulsatility index (PI) in middle cerebral arteries were simultaneously obtained. RESULTS: There was a significant negative correlation between MFV and cerebral oedema score (r = - 0.840, P <.001) and a significant positive correlation between PI and cerebral oedema score (r = 0.825, P <.001) on the seventh day of assessment. Significant differences were noted in MFV [53.17 ± 7.52 cm/s vs. 34.55 ± 3.35 cm/s] and PI [1.02 ± 0.16 vs. 1.46 ± 0.07] in patients with improvement and no improvement in cerebral oedema after seven days of TBI management. CONCLUSION: Bedside assessments of TCD-based parameters of MFV and PI correlate well with CT-based assessment of cerebral oedema in patients with TBI.