Persistence of Impaired Autoregulation of Cerebral Blood Flow in the Postictal Period in Piglets

Cerebral blood flow (CBF) autoregulation was evaluated in the postictal period in unanesthetized term newborn piglets with a mean age of 5.7 +/- 3 days. Seven animals (group 1) received 1 mg/kg bicuculline to induce brief generalized seizures, and six control animals (group II) received saline. Twenty to 90 min after the end of seizure activity in group I or saline injection in group II, CBF was measured by the radioactive labeled microspheres method at three levels of mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) obtained by controlled blood withdrawal within the normal range for autoregulation. In the postictal period, baseline CBF was higher in group I than in group II (85 +/- 21 vs. 48 +/- 7 ml/min/100 g, p less than 0.001). During hypotension, total CBF was positively correlated with variations of MABP in group I (r = 0.739, p less than 0.01) but not in group II. Regional CBF showed the same correlation with MABP. These data show that after seizures in piglets, the rise in CBF is associated with a persistent impairment of CBF autoregulation. These hemodynamic alterations may be relevant in the pathogenesis of hemorrhagic or ischemic brain lesions.