title: Brain imaging in intensive care medicine.
abstract: The management of severe brain injury requires a comprehensive approach in which imaging is an indispensable complement to the clinical and physiological information acquired at the bedside. Neuroimaging methods are routinely used in the diagnosis and prognosis of a broad spectrum of patients with acute neurological dysfunction. With incremental theoretical and technological refinements, imaging modalities are helping to unravel fundamental questions regarding the pathophysiology and neuroplasticity associated with critical neurological injury, and it is anticipated that this knowledge will lead to new and effective therapeutic interventions. We review some of the established and emerging structural and physiological imaging methods, and discuss their applications in patients with critical injuries including trauma and encephalopathy due to anoxia, liver failure, and sepsis.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurosciences Critical Care, Department of Anesthesiology and Critical Care Medicine, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, 600 North Wolfe Street, Baltimore, MD 21287, USA. rstevens@jhmi.edu
authors.forename: Robert D
authors.initials: RD
authors.lastname: Stevens
authors.forename: Aliaksei
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Pustavoitau
authors.forename: Julio A
authors.initials: JA
authors.lastname: Chalela
mesh_terms: D001928:Brain Diseases, Metabolic / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000451:nursing / Q000503:physiopathology; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000451:nursing / Q000503:physiopathology; D002545:Brain Ischemia / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000451:nursing / Q000503:physiopathology; D003422:Critical Care / Q000379:methods* / Q000592:standards; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D009682:Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy / Q000379:methods; D049268:Positron-Emission Tomography / Q000379:methods; D015899:Tomography, Emission-Computed, Single-Photon / Q000379:methods