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Updated: May 1, 2026
Use of a Piglet Model for the Study of Anesthetic-induced Developmental Neurotoxicity AIDN: A Translational Neuroscience Approach
Published on: June 11, 2017
Investigation of cerebral autoregulation in the newborn piglet during anaesthesia and surgery
Gemma Bale1, Aaron Oliver-Taylor2, Igor Fierens2
1Biomedical Optics Research Laboratory, University College London, Malet Place Engineering Building, Gower St., London, WC1E6BT, UK. gemma.bale.11@ucl.ac.uk.
Abstract:
The relationship between cerebral autoregulation (CA) and the neurotoxic effects of anaesthesia with and without surgery is investigated. Newborn piglets were randomly assigned to receive either 6 h of anaesthesia (isoflurane) or the same with an additional hour of minor surgery. The effect of the spontaneous changes in mean arterial blood pressure (MABP) on the cerebral haemodynamics (oxy- and deoxy-haemoglobin, HbO2 and Hb) was measured using transverse broadband near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS). A marker for impaired CA, concordance between MABP and intravascular oxygenation (HbD = HbO2 - Hb) in the ultra-low frequency domain (0.0018-0.0083 Hz), was assessed using coherence analysis. Presence of CA impairment was not significant but found to increase with surgical exacerbation. The impairment did not correlate with histological outcome (presence of cell death, apoptosis and microglial activation in the brain).
