We aimed to compare the relationship of mean arterial pressure (MAP) and intracranial pressure (ICP) to predict the neurological prognosis in cardiac arrest (CA) survivors. We retrospectively examined out-of-hospital CA patients treated with targeted temperature management. ICP was measured using cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) pressure, whereas MAP was measured as blood pressure monitored through the radial or femoral artery during CSF pressure measurement. Primary outcome was 6-month neurological outcome. Of 92 enrolled patients, the favorable outcome group comprised 31 (34%) patients. The median and interquartile range of MAP were significantly higher and ICP was significantly lower in patients with favorable neurological outcomes than in those with unfavorable neurological outcomes (94.3 mmHg [80.0-105.3] vs. 82.0 mmHg [65.3-96.3], p = 0.021 and 9.4 mmHg [10.8-8.7] vs. 18.8 mmHg [20.0-15.7], p < 0.001, respectively). ICP showed the higher area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (area under curve [AUC] = 0.953, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.888-0.986) for neurological outcome prediction. MAP showed the lower AUC (0.648, 95% CI = 0.541-0.744). Higher accurate prognosis was predicted by ICP than MAP, and the prognostic performance was good. Prospective multicenter studies are required to confirm these results.
Keywords: cardiac arrest; intracranial pressure; mean arterial pressure; prognostication.