Age-related differences in acute physiologic response to focal traumatic brain injury in piglets.
BACKGROUND
The goal of the present study was to determine whether age-related differences in the acute physiologic response to scaled cortical impact injury contribute to differences in vulnerability to traumatic brain injury (TBI).


METHODS
Heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), brain temperature (BrT) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) were measured in 22 piglets (7 of age 5 days, 8 of age 1 month, 7 of age 4 months) at baseline and for 3 h following scaled cortical impact injury.


RESULTS
There were no age-dependent variations from baseline in HR, MAP or BrT following injury. CBF increased in the 5-day-old animals following injury while CBF in the 1- and 4-month-old animals decreased following injury (p = 0.0049).


CONCLUSIONS
CBF was shown to have a significant age-dependent response to TBI with the youngest animals exhibiting increased CBF following injury.
Durham
S R
SR
Department of Neurosurgery, University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, Pa., USA. durhamsr@mail.med.upenn.edu
Raghupathi
R
R
Helfaer
M A
MA
Marwaha
S
S
Duhaime
A C
AC
D000208:Acute Disease; D000367:Age Factors; D000818:Animals; D001831:Body Temperature / Q000502:physiology*; D001921:Brain / Q000098:blood supply; D001930:Brain Injuries / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002560:Cerebrovascular Circulation; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D005260:Female; D006339:Heart Rate / Q000502:physiology*; D008297:Male; D013552:Swine