MRI Derived Intracranial Compliance in Patients with Idiopathic Intracranial Hypertension

Luca Nocetti¹, Alessandra Mantovani², Federica Tavani³, Milena Cobelli³, Stefano Vallone³, Claudio Danielli¹, GianPietro Pinna⁴

Idiopathic intracranial hypertension (IIH) is a neurological disorder that is characterized by increased intracranial pressure (ICP) in the absence of a tumor or other diseases. Intracranial compliance (ICC), the variation of the Intracranial Volume (ICVC) and local craniocervical hydrodynamic parameters derived using magnetic resonance (MR) imaging flow measurements were assessed in patients and control volunteers to evaluate the role of these factors in the associated pathophysiology.Seventeen patients with IIH diagnosis and a mean age 3910 years and fourteen healthy volunteers that report no history of neurological disorders and a mean age 273 years were studied using a 3-tesla MR imager; both patients and volunteers were all females. Differences in the systolic cervical CSF velocity and flow and the mean volume between the systolic and the diastolic phase, comparing healthy volunteers and patients with IIH, were not statistically significant. Were instead observed in patients compared with controls a statistically significant lower ICVC (p<0.036) and ICC (p<0.015). Analysis of results have indicated that ICC and ICVC are more sensitive than local hydrodynamic parameters to changes in the craniospinal biomechanical properties in IIH patients.