Aim of the study:
Cerebrovascular autoregulation (AR) maintains stable cerebral blood flow over a wide
range of cerebral perfusion pressure (CPP) levels. The effect of a decrease in core
temperature on AR is unclear; however, it may play an important role during the intensive
care of post cardiac arrest patients or during and after the rescue of accidental
hypothermic patients. We therefore aimed to investigate the change of the dynamic
AR indices during induction of deep hypothermia (HT) in a porcine model mimicking
the clinical scenario of accidental hypothermia.
Methods:
Thirteen pigs were surface-cooled to a core temperature of 28 °C. High-frequency monitoring
included arterial blood pressure (MAP), intracranial pressure (ICP), brain tissue
oxygen tension (PbtO2), cerebral regional oxygen saturation (rSO2) and cerebral autoregulation
indices (pressure reactivity index (PRx), oxygen reactivity index (ORx) and cerebral
oximetry index (COx)).
Results:
Targeted temperature was reached after 160 minutes (IQR, 146 – 191 min) reflecting
a rapid induction of deep HT (-4 °C/h). MAP and CPP remained stable until a core temperature
of 35 °C was reached (69 ± 8 and 53 ± 7 mmHg respectively) and significantly decreased
to 58 ± 17 and 40 ± 17 mmHg at 28 °C (p = 0.031 and p = 0.015, respectively). Despite
the decrease observed in MAP and CPP brain oxygenation significantly increased (PbtO2
by 5 mmHg and rSO2 by 7%, p = 0.037 and p = 0.029, respectively). There was no change
in ICP during HT induction. Baseline AR indices reflected normal cerebral AR in all
pigs and did not change until a temperature of 34 °C (ORx), 33 °C (PRx) and 30 °C
(COx) was reached. At lower temperature AR-indices significantly increased (PRx: p
< 0.001, ORx: p = 0.02, COx: p = 0.03), reflecting impaired cerebral AR.
Conclusions:
Cerebrovascular AR is impaired during accidental moderate to deep hypothermia. Despite
the decrease in MAP and CPP, brain oxygenation was not deranged most likely due to
decreased consumption during hypothermia. Further studies are needed to define the
optimal blood pressure target during deep hypothermia.