[The effect of anesthetic concentration on burst-suppression of the EEG in rats]

The term "burst-suppression" is used to describe the electroencephalogram (EEG) pattern characterized by theta or delta waves, at times intermixed with faster waves, and intervening periods of relative quiescence. Burst-suppression pattern can reflect the seriously suppressed brain activity under deep anesthesia. To investigate the relationship between burst-suppression features and anesthetic concentration, we adopted four straightforward indexes, i. e., burst-suppression ratio (BSR), burst frequency, burst amplitude and suppression amplitude, and used them to analyze the EEG recordings in ten isoflurane-anesthetized rats. It was found that all the four burst-suppression indexes changed along with anesthetic concentration, that BSR and burst amplitude increased with higher concentration of isoflurane while burst frequency and suppression amplitude decreased, and that BSR was the most sensitive and consistent measurement to indicate isoflurane concentration so it constituted a valuable tool for timely evaluation of burst-suppression feature under deep anesthesia. The result also showed that the composition of carrier gas (i. e. pure oxygen vs. mixed oxygen) did not influence the effect of anesthesia significantly; and the four indexes of burst-suppression features could keep relatively stable within 60 min under the isoflurane concentration of 2%. The present study provides quantitative information of burst-suppression features under different anesthetic depth and may help to develop a clinically satisfied system that could quantify the characteristics of EEG and rigorously evaluate the cerebral state of patients.