This study aims to detect whether the optic nerve sheath diameter (ONSD) can be
used to dynamically monitor intracranial pressure (ICP). Adult patients
undergoing invasive ICP monitoring on the day of admission are included in this
study. For each patient, the ONSD is first measured in the supine position and
then in the 30 head-up position. Subsequently, a dynamic test is
conducted on 16 patients. The ONSD is measured in the supine position once a day
for three consecutive days starting on the day of admission. There is a strong
correlation between the ONSD and ICP values in the supine position on admission
(r = 0.799), and when patients are changed from the supine to the
30 head-up position, the ICP and ONSD values decrease correspondingly.
However, the change in ICP is not strongly correlated with the change in ONSD
(r = 0.358). In the dynamic test, a good agreement between the ICP and
ONSD only exists in three patients (18.8%), and three patients have completely
different profiles for ICP and ONSD. These results suggest that the changes in
the ONSD and ICP values are not closely correlated after dynamic observation.
Therefore, measurement of the ONSD may not be a suitable tool to dynamically
monitor ICP.