Estudo não invasivo da pressão intracraniana em pacientes pré - e pós - quimioterapia para o tratamento de câncer de mama, pulmão e próstata

Abstract

Intracranial pressure (ICP) is caused by a combination of three components: brain structures (brain tissue), cerebrospinal fluid, and circulating blood. When one of these components changes its volume, the body tends to correct this discrepancy with compensation, but there are cases in which this mechanism is not successful, causing patients discomfort, amongthem: headache, visual changes, náusea and vomiting. Currently, to monitor the ICP, surgery is needed on the skull and the introduction of sensors in to the patient's brain. In this context, researchers developed a totally non-invasive method for ICP monitoring, which provided the possibility of ICP assessment in different diseases and obtaining useful data in the prevention of complications and assistance in the conduct of doctors and nurses. One possibility of application to be considered are the patients in chemotherapy treatment against cancer, in which the intercurrences are frequentand varied. Thus, this study aimed to identify, through a noninvasive method, changes in the ICP of these patients, before and after a chemotherapy session, and to relate to them possible intercurrences and clinical and laboratory data of the patients. Patient sunder going chemotherapy treatment with the primary cancers most incidental the place chosen for the research were invited toth study, before and after the chemotherapy session. Data were analyzed by SPSS 20.0® (Chicago, USA). Changes in intracranial pressure were noted in relation to pre and post-session monitoring. Significant statistical differences were observed in patients in the breast group when compared to ICP before and after the chemotherapy session. It should be not edthat the patients did not show alterations in the pre-chemotherapy ICP, but alterations in the post-chemotherapy monitoring were found. The present study showed that chemotherapyis a potential factor to provide alteration of the intracranial pressure of patients submited to treatment.