Articles: brain-injuries.
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Neurodegenerative diseases, traumatic brain injury and stroke are likely to result in cognitive dysfunctioning. Animal models are needed in which these deficits and recovery of the affected functions can be investigated. In the present study, the entorhinal area was chosen as the target for lesioning and for assessing the lesion-induced deficits in the Morris water maze. ⋯ The degree of the induced spatial learning impairments and the effects on the rate of acquisition during training, however, differed between experiments. This result suggests that the fundamental biological diversity between shipments of rats can account for variation in the effects of parahippocampal damage on spatial learning even in highly standardized experimental set-ups. Rats lesioned by bilateral injections of ibotenic acid into the entorhinal cortex provide an interesting and reliable model for investigating cognitive dysfunctions in neurodegenerative diseases, stroke or traumatic brain injury.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Jan 2000
Application of 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride staining to evaluate injury volume after controlled cortical impact brain injury: role of brain edema in evolution of injury volume.
A reliable method for measuring injury volume after traumatic brain injury (TBI) is of great importance when studying pharmacological protective agents in the field of head trauma research. Utilization of 2,3,5-triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC) has gained extensive acceptance in stroke research and has recently been applied to injury volume measurement in the lateral fluid percussion model. The present study was undertaken to apply this method to the controlled cortical impact (CCI) model and to study the role of brain edema. ⋯ A statistically significant reduction of injury volume was observed after postinjury day 4. We also observed that due to the presence of brain edema absolute injury volume is more than corrected injury volume in the first 3 days after injury as opposed to injury volume at postinjury day 7. These results suggest that the measurement of injury volume with TTC staining should be corrected for brain edema in the CCI brain injury model.
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Acta Neurochir. Suppl. · Jan 2000
Low extracellular (ECF) glucose affects the neurochemical profile in severe head-injured patients.
Glucose (Gluc) is the main energy source for the brain. After severe head-injury energy demand is massively increased and supply is often decreased. In pilot microdialysis studies, many patients with severe head-injury had undetectable glucose concentrations, probably reflecting changes in metabolism and/or reduced supply. ⋯ There was also no correlation between outcome and the dialysate glucose. The results indicate that low ECF glucose is almost always present in severe head-injury. Moreover, the lack of correlation between low glucose and outcome, however, suggests that other energy substrates, such as lactate, are important after TBI.
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Zentralbl. Neurochir. · Jan 2000
Prognostic significance of advanced neuromonitoring after traumatic brain injury using neural networks.
While the therapeutic impact of tissue oxygenation (PtiO2) supplementing ICP-monitoring is proven by several clinical studies, its prognostic value is not well studied. In the following study artificial neural networks (ANN) were used to analyze the accuracy of outcome prediction after traumatic brain injury (TBI) for different combinations of clinical data and parameters derived from neuromonitoring. The total group included 95 patients suffering from TBI. ⋯ A combination of all parameters lead to results lying between the above results. The results indicate that prediction of outcome can be improved by combining clinical and neuromonitoring data. The prognostic value of ICP might be superior to that of PtiO2.
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The present study describes 15 cases of intracranial infections developed in a group of in patients with missile brain wound (MBW), during the war in Croatia in the region of East Slavonia. ⋯ The liberal use of post-contrast CT of the brain within the first 2 months after injury, especially if performed early in the clinical course, can lead to a prompt diagnosis of most of "early intracranial infections". The surgical procedures in order to prevent wound CSF fistula/dehiscence development are absolutely necessary. The immediate scalp and dural wound repair in case of wound complications are absolutely indicated and if needed, the procedures can be repeated. However, it seems that retained fragments are not responsible for an increased rate of intracranial infection.