Morphological quantitative analysis of intracranial pressure waves in normal pressure hydrocephalus

Abstract

This work presents a prospective morphological and quantitative analysis of 43 intracranial pressure recordings performed on normal pressure hydrocephalic patients. This analysis led us to separate Lundberg's B waves into different subtypes and to refine the definition of the 'Plateau' wave. Two B wave subtypes named Great Symmetrical wave and Intermediate wave appeared correlated with the surgical improvement. In addition, the degree of post-operative improvement was correlated with the frequency of Intermediate wave. An extended quantitative classification of intracranial pressure waves is proposed that can be used alone to determine which patients should undergo a shunting procedure and which one should the most improve.