Abstract
Of 19 adolescents (ages 10–18) admitted consecutively because of major blunt-impact trauma, 15 had head injuries (Glasgow coma scales 4–15). Eight had cardiac injury (42%), as demonstrated by cardiac wall-motion studies utilizing ECG-gated radionuclide angiography. Of the head-injured patients, 7 had cardiac injury (47%), and of these, one died in cardiac shock. Significant cardiac injury is known both experimentally and clinically to escape detection by conventional methods and a compromised cardiac output may bode ill for a damaged brain if cerebral perfusion pressure is in jeopardy.
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Sutherland, G.R., Amacher, A.L., Sibbald, W.J. et al. Heart injury in head-injured adolescents. Child's Nerv Syst 1, 219–222 (1985). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00270766
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00270766