Age-related differences in acute physiologic response to focal traumatic brain injury in piglets.

INTRODUCTION: The goal of the present study was to determine whether age-related differences in the acute physiologic response to scaled cortical impact injury contribute to differences in vulnerability to traumatic brain injury (TBI).

METHODS: Heart rate (HR), mean arterial pressure (MAP), brain temperature (BrT) and cerebral blood flow (CBF) were measured in 22 piglets (7 of age 5 days, 8 of age 1 month, 7 of age 4 months) at baseline and for 3 h following scaled cortical impact injury.

RESULTS: There were no age-dependent variations from baseline in HR, MAP or BrT following injury. CBF increased in the 5-day-old animals following injury while CBF in the 1- and 4-month-old animals decreased following injury (p = 0.0049).

CONCLUSION: CBF was shown to have a significant age-dependent response to TBI with the youngest animals exhibiting increased CBF following injury.