Modelling intracranial pressure with noninvasive physiological measures

Abstract

Patients who suffered a traumatic brain injury (TBI) require special care, and physicians often monitor intercranial pressure (ICP) as it can greatly aid in management. Although monitoring ICP can be critical, it requires neurosurgery, which presents additional significant risk. Monitoring ICP also aids in clinical situations beyond TBI, however the risk of neurosurgery can prevent physicians from gathering the data. The need for surgery may be eliminated if ICP could be accurately inferred using noninvasive physiological measures. Genetic programming (GP) and linear regression were used to develop nonlinear and linear mathematical models describing the relationships between intercranial pressure and a collection of physiological measurements from noninvasive instruments. Nonlinear models of ICP were generated that not only fit the subjects they were trained on, but generalized well across other subjects. The nonlinear models were analysed and provided insight into the studied underlying system which led to the creation of additional models. The new models were developed with a refined search, and were more accurate and general. It was also found that the relations between the features could be explained effectively with a simple linear model after GP refined the search.