Abstract:
Elevated intracranial pressure (ICP) is one of the common consequences of traumatic conditions and has a profound influence on outcome. There are well established methods for the measurement, continuous monitoring and treatment of raised ICP. However, there is a need to build computer models for investigation of ICP before any invasive procedures are applied. To-date, there is a lot of research on going, on the measurement of ICP in patients with different conditions e.g. ICP due to edema, ICP due to formation of embolus in CSF and ICP due to accidental head injuries. However, there is still one area in this domain which is lacking enough knowledge, i.e. investigating ICP due to the presence of brain tumor.
In this research, therefore the ICP is investigated due to the presence of tumor. Brain tumor is the most vulnerable state, with an abnormal growth of cells, which is usually accompanied with an increased ICP due to the mass content increment. The relation between volume and pressure is non-linear. Skull is usually, considered as an enclosed and in-elastic container like a sac. The positioning of layers within this sac generates a constant pressure which is normal according to the body homeostasis. An increase in the volume of any of the intra cranial contents (Sac contents) is naturally offset by a decrease in pressure in one or the other content in it. However, when the size of the tumor (which is not an intra-cranial content) increases, the compensatory mechanisms gets exhausted and further increase in the brain sac in terms of volume results in an extremely elevated ICP. This mechanism is replicated in this research by using Image based Finite Element modeling and mathematical modeling. Reportedly the normal range of ICP lies between 3.75~15mmHg in humans.
We have generated two head models with different mesh densities provided the same boundary conditions and loading parameters using Image Based Finite Element Modeling.
Results show that that presence of foreign mass (e.g. tumor) contributes to the elevation of intra-cranial pressure. This study is done on a single slice of brain and may not incorporate the realism however it does address a
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preliminary solution to the detection of increased intra-cranial pressure due to the presence of brain tumor. The results are also validated using mathematical solution at the end.
