Effects of ischemia on brain blood flow and oxygen consumption of newborn pigs

Brain circulation after 20 min of total brain ischemia was examined in unanesthetized newborn pigs. Except in the cerebrum, reactive hyperemia was observed throughout the brain, peaking by 5 min and subsiding by 20 min of reperfusion. Brain blood flow after 15 min of reperfusion matched the control. Blood flow to the cerebrum then decreased at 40 and 90 min reperfusion, while the rest of the brain was unaffected. Blood flow to the cerebrum returned to control by 24 h. Cerebral vascular resistance doubled by 15 min reperfusion, remained elevated at 90 min reperfusion, but returned to control by 24 h. Cerebral oxygen consumption followed a pattern similar to blood flow. Ninety minutes postischemia, hypercapnia-induced hyperemia was greatly attenuated in the cerebrum, reduced modestly in the diencephalon-mesencephalon, but unaffected in the rest of the brain. Thus 20 min of global brain ischemia in piglets does not produce reactive hyperemia in the cerebrum that is detectable at 5 min reperfusion but does in the remainder of the brain. Subsequent hemodynamic abnormalities apparently are confined to the cerebrum. Blood flow throughout the brain returns to normal by 24 h. Thus cerebral hemodynamic effects of total global ischemia are regionally dependent.