Th
e aim of th
e pr
es
ent work is to d
ev
elop a non-d
estructiv
e, non-invasiv
e t
echniqu
e for th
e early diagnosis of an oncoming brain
ed
ema bas
ed on th
e variation of vibration charact
eristics of th
e h
ead syst
em (i.
e.
eig
enfr
equ
ency sp
ectrum and modal damping). B
esid
es th
e th
eor
etical mod
el that supports th
e basic principl
e, th
e propos
ed t
echniqu
e has b
een v
erifi
ed
exp
erim
entally in animal t
ests. Th
e advantag
e of such an approach is that th
e r
elativ
e information is availabl
e w
ell in advanc
e an incr
eas
e of intracranial pr
essur
e is d
et
ect
ed. Th
e uncontroll
ed intracranial hyp
ert
ension is associat
ed with incr
eas
ed mortality or v
eg
etativ
e stat
e in h
ead trauma. Traumatic l
esions locat
ed on t
emporal lob
e r
end
er particularly imp
eding th
e transt
endorial h
erniation. From th
e m
edical point of vi
ew, intracranial pr
essur
e (ICP) monitoring r
epr
es
ents an
eff
ectiv
e way for
early consid
eration of n
eurological d
ecomp
ensation in various n
eurosurgical conditions particularly in th
e h
ead-injur
ed s
etting. How
ev
er, th
e us
e of ICP monitoring is not an
eff
ectiv
e way of brain
ed
ema d
et
ection, sinc
e ICP incr
eas
e v
ery oft
en caus
es irr
ev
ersibl
e probl
ems to th
e pati
ent's brain. Th
er
efor
e, th
e d
et
ermination of an
earli
er, l
ess invasiv
e and mor
e s
ensitiv
e indicator of th
e oncoming intracranial hyp
ert
ension and of th
e imp
eding n
eurological d
et
erioration is of profound importanc
e.
The present work aims at experimental verification of both eigenfrequency shifting and modal damping increase of the spectral response of the head system of rabbits, wherever a mass increase in the content of cranial shell appears. The conducted analysis concludes that the eigenfrequency spectrum and its modal damping characteristics are sufficiently sensitive parameters in order to characterize mass increase in the cranial shell.
Therefore the combination of both the above parameters could be used with confidence for the early diagnosis of brain edema.