IRVINE, Calif. - A new case study series published in the Journal of Neuroscience Nursing demonstrated that automated infrared pupillometry is an accurate tool that provides reliable data in patients with a poor baseline neurological examination after stroke. Automated infrared pupillometry is an objective assessment of the pupillary light reflex that is measured using NeurOptics’ NPi®-200 Pupillometer.
The retrospective case study series analyzed three patients admitted to UT Southwestern Medical Center’s neurocritical care unit who presented with acute ischemic stroke and progressed to herniation. The study examined the reliability and accuracy of automated pupillometry for neurological assessments. Patients were monitored hourly using NeurOptics’ infrared automated pupillometer, which calculates a Neurological Pupil index (NPi). NPi values range from 0 to 4.9, with scores under 3 considered abnormal.
Patient NPi scores were reported as normal (a score of 3 or higher) or abnormal (a score less than 3). In each case, abnormal NPi values prompted emergent imaging that confirmed acute cerebral edema, resulting in a change inmanagement and treatment plan. The study demonstrates the use of automated pupillometry as an additional tool to provide information that can assist with early confirmatory diagnostic evaluation and progression of appropriate management.1
“Automated pupillometry eliminates uncertainty in one aspect of the neurological assessment by providing objective data to trend, similar to other vital signs like blood pressure readings, telemetry, and pulse oximetry,” said Jia Romito, MD, Assistant Professor of Anesthesiology and Neurocritical Care at UT Southwestern Medical Center and study investigator. “Pupillometry provides a more consistent and reliable way to assess neurological injury noninvasively. This case series highlights just a few examples that demonstrate how using NeurOptics’ pupillometry has improved our patient outcomes because of its ability to provide objective findings and identify trends that the human eye cannot spot.”
Automated assessment of the pupillary light reflex has emerged as an objective means of assessing pupillary reactivity across a broad spectrum of neurological disease, including stroke, traumatic brain injury, edema, tumoral herniation syndromes, and other primary and secondary neurological injuries. Pupillometers use infrared technology to assess an array of objective pupillary variables including size, constriction velocity, latency, and dilation velocity, which are normalized and standardized to compute the Neurological Pupil index (NPi). The NeurOptics NPi-200 Pupillometer eliminates the variability and subjectivity inherent in manual pupillary evaluation (performed using a penlight), providing more accurate, reliable, and objective pupil size and reactivity measurement for this vital component of neurological examinations.
The study, titled Neurological Pupil Index as an Indicator of Irreversible Cerebral Edema: A Case Series, can be found here.
About NeurOptics
Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., NeurOptics is the leader in the science of pupillometry. Driven by a passion to help clinicians improve patient outcomes, NeurOptics develops and markets innovative technology for use in critical care medicine, neurology, neurosurgery, emergency medicine, and research. The NeurOptics NPi-200 Pupillometer has been adopted in over 490 hospitals in the United States and is represented in more than 27 countries worldwide. For more information, visit www.NeurOptics.com. Follow NeurOptics on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter @NeurOpticsInc.
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