Cerebral blood flow autoregulation in experimental subarachnoid haemorrhage in rat

Haemodynamic instability is of great importance in clinical management of patients with subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). The significance of angiographically demonstrable vasospasm for disturbances of cerebral blood flow (CBF) and cerebral autoregulation has not yet been clarified. The present study was designed to describe disturbances of cerebral autoregulation during the timecourse of experimental SAH (eSAH) in rats. A second aim of the study was to relate the results to a reported timecourse of angiographic vasospasm in the same animal model. Previous studies have shown that the timecourse of angiographically visible vasospasm in eSAH is biphasic with maximal spasm at 10 min and 2 days after induction of eSAH. At 5 days, the vasospasms have resolved. CBF was measured using a 133-Xenon intracarotid injection method which allowed serial measurements of mean hemispheric CBF during controlled manipulations of arterial blood pressure. In this way, an autoregulation curve could be constructed. The present study shows that autoregulation is severely disturbed or even totally absent at 2 and 5 days after eSAH. Thus there seems to be no direct correlation between presence of angiographic vasospasm and impairment of autoregulation, or that the impairment of autoregulation is more protracted than the presence of cerebral vasospasm, presuming a correlation exist.