Brain cortex tissue Ca, Mg, Fe, Na, and K following resuscitation from cardiac arrest in dogs

Recent evidence suggests that ultimate neurologic injury following cardiac arrest and resuscitation may be largely determined by biochemical events occurring during reperfusion. To test this hypothesis and further characterize the time course of some of these events, we examined tissue samples from the parietal cortex for their total content of calcium (Ca), magnesium (Mg), iron (Fe), sodium (Na), and potassium (K) after 10 minutes, two hours, four hours, and eight hours of reperfusion following a 15-minute cardiac arrest in dogs. After 10 minutes of reperfusion, there were relatively small, but significant, increases in the total tissue content of Ca and Na, as compared to nonischemic controls. All values had returned to normal at two hours and remained normal at four hours of reperfusion. However, at eight hours of reperfusion, Ca and Na content approximately doubled and K content was reduced by half. There were no significant changes at any time in the tissue content of Fe or Mg. We conclude that with between four and eight hours of reperfusion following a 15-minute cardiac arrest, a major defect occurs in many cells of the cortex with respect to their ability to control ionic balances of Ca, Na, and K. This might be explained either by failure of the energy-dependent ionic pumps or by more generalized damage to the membrane permeability barrier by a process such as lipid peroxidation.