96. Jahrestagung der Deutschen Gesellschaft für Pathologie e. V ...

Abstracts
FR-P-126
Mild hypothermia induced by surface cooling reduced cerebral
cortex lesions after prolonged cardiac arrest in a pig model
S . Högler 1 , F . Sterz 2 , A . Janata 2 , W . Weihs 2 , P . Schmidt 1
1 University of Veterinary Medicine Vienna, Department for Pathobiology,
Wien, Austria, 2 Medical University of Vienna, Department of Emergency
Medicine, Wien, Austria
Aims. A surface cooling system to induce mild therapeutic hypothermia
was tested in a pig model for prolonged cardiac arrest and type and extent
of cerebral cortex lesions were assessed in comparison to a control
group without cooling.
Methods. Experimental ventricular fibrillation cardiac arrest for 10 min
was induced in 22 large white pigs (35–45 kg). After 3 min of basic life
support and 5 min of advanced life support the animals were defibrillated
and randomized into the hypothermia or the control group. Swine
in the hypothermia group were cooled to a core temperature of 33°C by
the LRS ThermoSuit System, which is pumping a thin layer of ice water
over most of the skin surface, and were kept at that temperature for 14 h.
Rewarming was started 16 h post arrest. Control animals were kept at a
constant core temperature of 38.5°C. At day 9 post arrest animals were
deeply anesthetized and the brain was perfused with 4 L of saline and
1 L of paraformaldehyde. Coronary brain sections were embedded in
paraffin and stained with HE. Frontal, parietal, temporal, occipital and
insular cortices were examined by a semi-quantitative method. Type and
extent of lesions were evaluated in each region and assessed. For group
comparisons the Mann-Whitney-U-test was used.
Results. Restoration of spontaneous circulation and subsequent randomization
was achieved in 16 animals. The target temperature in the
cooling group was reached after 9 (5.3–11.9) min. All animals survived
until the endpoint 9 days post arrest. In frontal, parietal, temporal and
occipital cortex statistically highly significant differences (p