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Neuroprotective efficacy of selective brain hypothermia induced by a novel external cooling device on permanent cerebral ischemia in rats.

Taniguchi T, Morikawa E, Mori T, Matsui T

Department of Neurosurgery, Saitama Medical Center/School, 1981 Kamoda, Kawagoe, Saitama, Japan. taniguti@saitama-med.ac.jp

OBJECTIVES: This study was aimed at examining whether hypothermia is neuroprotective against permanent cerebral ischemia in rats.METHODS: A total of 32 male Sprague--Dawley rats were subjected to a middle cerebral artery occlusion. In the hypothermic group, rats (n=10) underwent selective brain hypothermia for 5 hours with the use of a novel surface coil with coolant circulating inside. In the control (n=13) and sham groups (n=9), the rats were maintained at normothermia. After a period of 168 hours ischemia, animals were killed to measure the infarction volume of the brain stained with hematoxylin-eosin.RESULTS: There were no significant differences in physiological parameters except for the temperature. The present style of hypothermia significantly reduced infarction volume in the cortex and caudoputamen.DISCUSSION: The present results endorse the neuroprotective effect of our method of hypothermia in permanent focal cerebral ischemia at an endpoint of 1 week under the following two conditions: (1) reduction of muscle and caudoputamen temperature to 29 and 31 degrees C, respectively; (2) maintenance of the mean arterial blood pressure above 90 mmHg during hypothermia.

Published 13 September 2005 in Neurol Res, 27(6): 613-9.
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