Cerebral metabolic studies in situ by 31P-nuclear magnetic resonance after hypothermic circulatory arrest

Cerebral high energy phosphates were studied in the intact rabbit brain using nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. The effect of hypothermia on degradation kinetics in total ischemia due to circulatory arrest was examined, measuring phosphocreatine, adenosine triphosphate, and inorganic phosphate as a function of time at three different temperatures (35, 24, 21 degrees C). Phosphocreatine- and ATP-decays followed single exponential functions at all three temperatures. The half-life times increased by approximately a factor of three upon lowering the temperature from 35 to 21 degrees C with activation energies of 15-20 kcal/mol, which corresponds to values of Q10 between 2.4 and 3.2. In the temperature range studied, no critical temperature was found below which metabolism would stop completely. We conclude that nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy allows, in the intact animal, quantitative assessment of the influence of hypothermia on energy metabolism in the brain. This influence is a major concern in the field of cardiac surgery in infants and children who are often operated in total circulatory arrest under deep hypothermia.