Kamran Tabaddor

Determinants of head injury mortality: importance of the low risk patient.

Data were obtained prospectively for 7,912 head-injured patients admitted from 1980 to 1981 to 41 hospitals in 3 U.S. metropolitan areas. Highly significant independent predictors of mortality were motor score, number of reactive eyes, systolic blood pressure, abdominal injury, chest injury, age, and hospital unit (hospital or group of hospitals). The difference between the number of deaths observed and the number expected, by hospital unit, ranged from 43% below expectation to 52% above expectation. The 2 hospital units with the lowest mortality had only 1 death, where 9.4 would be expected, in patients whose risk of death was estimated to be less than 10%. In the single hospital with clearly excess mortality, however, the standardized mortality ratios were 208, 135, and 144% for the risk groups whose probabilities of death were 0 to 50, 50 to 80, and 80 to 100%, respectively. The lack of deaths in those hospitals with the best mortality experience and the excess mortality in the hospital with the worst mortality experience appear to be explained largely by differences in patients who, by clinical criteria, seem to be at low risk for death, and not by severely injured patients.

Cognitive Sequelae and Recovery Course after Moderate and Severe Head Injury

The quality of survival after severe and moderate head injury is highly dependent on the adequacy of cognitive recovery. The intellectual sequelae of head injury impede social and occupational reintegration more than physical disabilities do. The present study examines the course of cognitive recovery from the time of admission to 1 year after trauma. Included in the study were 68 patients with severe or moderate head injury who were 15 to 55 years old. The severity of injury was determined by the Glasgow coma scale. For this analysis, the data from tests of general intellect, language, verbal and nonverbal memory, and fine motor coordination were utilized. Standard scores (Z scores) were calculated for each test using the available normative data. Evaluation at discharge or 3 months after injury revealed I.Q. scores about 1.5 standard deviations (SD) below the mean, whereas language functioning was 4 SD, verbal memory was 5 SD, nonverbal memory was 5 SD, and fine motor coordination was 3 to 5 SD below the mean. All cognitive functions showed improvement over a 1-year period. Most of the recovery in linguistic functioning occurred during the first 6 months after trauma. This study suggests that all patients sustain significant mental sequelae after severe or moderate head injury. In spite of significant improvement during the 1st year, patients continue to have marked impairment in cognitive functions.

Ventricular fluid homovanillic acid and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid concentrations in patients with movement disorders.

Ventricular fluid concentrations of homovanillic acid (HVA) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the respective metabolites of dopamine and serotonin, were measured in 57 patients undergoing thalamotomy for relief of movement disorders. The diseases included were Parkinson disease, dystonia, cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, and posttraumatic or posthypoxic encephalopathy. Untreated parkinsonian patients had the lowest mean HVA level (119 ng per milliliter). Patients with multiple sclerosis or with posttraumatic or posthypoxic encephalopathy with both intellectual impairment and bilateral motor involvement had lower mean HVA levels (197 and 177 ng per milliliter, respectively) than cerebral palsy patients with bilateral motor disease (233 ng per milliliter), dystonia patients (246 ng per milliliter), or multiple sclerosis patients with normal intellect (376 ng per milliliter). The data suggest that diffuse cerebral disease may lead to diminished dopaminergic activity. Ventricular fluid 5-HIAA levels were similar in all groups of patients. Chronic cerebellar stimulation markedly increased ventricular fluid HVA and 5-HIAA levels, indicating that cerebellar stimulation affected cerebral dopaminergic and serotonergic systems.

Free and conjugated dopamine in human ventricular fluid

Free dopamine and an acid hydrolyzable conjugate of dopamine were measured in human ventricular fluid specimens with a radioenzymatic assay and by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) with electrochemical detection. Only trace amounts of free norepinephrine and dopamine were detected in ventricular fluid from patients with movement disorders. When the ventricular fluid was hydrolyzed by heating in HClO4 by lyophilization in dilute HClO4, however, a substantial amount of free dopamine was released. Values for free plus conjugated dopamine in ventricular fluid from patients who had never taken L-DOPA ranged from 139 to 340 pg/ml when determined by HPLC and from 223 to 428 pg/ml when measured radioenzymatically. The correlation coefficient for values obtained by the two methods in the same sample of CSF was 0.94 (P less than 0.001). Patients who had been treated with L-DOPA had higher levels of conjugated dopamine in their ventricular CSF which correlated inversely with the time between the last dose of L-DOPA and withdrawal of the ventricular fluid. Additionally, one patient with acute cerebral trauma had elevated levels of free norepinephrine and both free and conjugated dopamine in his ventricular fluid. Conjugation may be an important inactivation pathway for released dopamine in man.

Vasoactive intestinal peptide in cerebrospinal fluid

Immunoreactive vasoactive intestinal peptide (VIP) was measured in lumbar and ventricular cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) from patients with various neurological disorders and in 2 hour aliquots of cisternal fluid removed continuously from rhesus monkeys. Although most of the VIP in concentrated pools of human ventricular fluid and of monkey cisternal fluid co-eluted with synthetic porcine VIP28 on a column of Sephadex G-25 superfine, there was evidence that smaller immunoreactive fragments were also present. A circadian pattern of CSF VIP concentration was observed in 2 of the 3 monkeys studied, with highest levels occurring at night and lowest during the day. Ventricular fluid VIP levels were highest in hydrocephalic children and lowest in patients with multiple sclerosis or epilepsy, while VIP was not detectable in ventricular fluid from patients in coma following a severe head injury. There were no significant differences in VIP concentrations in CSF from patients with dystonia. Parkinsons disease, or Alzheimers disease, suggesting that VIP containing neurons are not affected in these disorders. Lumbar fluid VIP levels were low in patients undergoing aneurysm surgery. Since VIP is a potent vasodilator, these findings may have important implications in relation to the development of vasospasm following subarachnoid hemorrhage.

Estimation of Intracranial Pressure by CT Scan in Closed Head Trauma

The predictive values of certain features of computerized tomographic (CT) scans in estimating intracranial pressure (ICP) were investigated in 40 patients following closed head injuries. The various features of CT scans selected for study included ventricular compression, the size of the parenchymal mass lesion, midline shift, and an intraventricular clot. All patients with intraventricular clot exhibited severe elevation of pressure. Ventricular compression correlated well with the level of intracranial pressure. Size of the mass was found to be suggestive of pressure elevation but did not reach statistical significance. Midline shift showed no correlation with the intracranial pressure.

Diminished ventricular fluid dopamine metabolites in adult‐onset dystonia

Homovanillic acid (HVA) and 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid (5-HIAA), the respective metabolites of dopamine and serotonin, were measured in ventricular fluid obtained from 20 patients with torsion dystonia at the time of ventriculography prior to thalamic surgery. The patients could be divided into two distinct types of dystonia—childhood-onset and adult-onset—which were identifiable on clinical and biochemical grounds. In the 14 patients with childhood-onset dystonia, the first symptom appeared in one limb in early childhood and the disease usually progressed rapidly. In the six patients with adult-onset dystonia, the first symptom usually appeared in axial muscles after adolescence and the disease progressed slowly. Ventricular fluid HVA levels were significantly lower in the patients with adult-onset dystonia than in those with childhood-onset dystonia. These differences suggest diminished dopaminergic activity, possibly secondary to nigrostriatal dysfunction, in adult-onset dystonia.

Solitary primary CNS lymphoma : long term survival following total resection

Primary non-Hodgkins CNS lymphoma is rare, constituting 0.3–1.5% of all intracranial neoplasms in patients without AIDS. In the past 10 years the incidence has tripled in this population. The role of surgery is commonly limited to obtaining adequate tissue for diagnosis. This has precluded the evaluation of total surgical resection for a surgically accessible solitary lesion. We have encountered a 36-year-old healthy white male with primary CNS lymphoma who is HIV-negative and who has survived over five years disease free after total surgical resection of his lymphoma.

The Epidemiology of Head Injury in the Bronx; pp. 79–88

The epidemiology of head injury was studied in the Bronx, N.Y., for the period March 1980 through February 1981. Using a ratio estimation sampling scheme the annual incidence rate, age-adjusted to the

Factors Affecting Short-Term Outcome of Head Trauma Patients

The important contributing factors to short-term outcome of central nervous system (CNS) trauma in the Bronx, N.Y., USA, were studied in 818 patients admitted to six Bronx hospitals during a 6-month p