ventricular-brain ratio

File:Enlarged_lateral_ventricles_in_schizophrenia.png

Ventricular-brain ratio (VBR), also known as the ventricle-to-brain ratio or ventricle-brain ratio, is the ratio of total ventricle area to total brain area,{{cite book|author1=Theodore Eliot Keats|author2=Christopher Sistrom|title=Atlas of Radiologic Measurement|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0ru4vpP4APoC&pg=PA42|year=2001|publisher=Elsevier Health Sciences|isbn=0-323-00161-0|pages=42–}} which can be calculated with planimetry from brain imagining techniques such as CT scans. ({{#property:P577|from=Q21100980}}). {{#property:P1476|from=Q21100980}}. {{#property:P1433|from=Q21100980}}

It is a common measure of ventricular dilation or cerebral atrophy in patients with traumatic brain injury or hydrocephalus ex vacuo.{{cite book|author1=Nathan Zasler|author2=Douglas Katz, MD|author3=Ross D. Zafonte|title=Brain Injury Medicine: Principles and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yplFkKimNcYC&pg=PA207|year=2007|publisher=Demos Medical Publishing|isbn=978-1-888799-93-4|pages=207–}} VBR also tends to increase with age.

Generally, a higher VBR means a worse prognosis for recovering from a brain injury.{{cite book|author1=Nathan Zasler|author2=Douglas Katz, MD|author3=Ross D. Zafonte|title=Brain Injury Medicine: Principles and Practice|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yplFkKimNcYC&pg=PA207|year=2007|publisher=Demos Medical Publishing|isbn=978-1-888799-93-4|pages=207–}} For example, VBR is significantly correlated with performance on the Luria-Nebraska neuropsychological battery.{{cite book|author1=R. N. Malatesha|author2=Lawrence C. Hartlage|title=Neuropsychology and Cognition: Proceedings of the NATO Advanced Study Institute on Neuropsychology and Cognition, Augusta, Georgia, U.S.A., September 8-18, 1980|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZOjJGGYXWWEC&pg=PA86|year=1982|publisher=Springer|isbn=978-90-247-2728-5|pages=86}} Studies have found people with schizophrenia have larger third ventricles and VBR.{{cite book|author1=Lee N. Robins|author2=Michael Rutter|title=Straight and Devious Pathways from Childhood to Adulthood|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Nc8zAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA333|year=1990|publisher=CUP Archive|isbn=978-0-521-42739-5|pages=333–}} Correlational studies have found relationships between ventricle-brain ratio and binge eating and inversely with plasma thyroid hormone concentration.{{cite book|author1=C. Edward Coffey|author2=Roger A. Brumback|title=Pediatric Neuropsychiatry|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=sHDaURMuJ9UC&pg=PA314|year=2006|publisher=Lippincott Williams & Wilkins|isbn=978-0-7817-5191-9|pages=314–}}