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Experimental high-altitude intracerebral hemorrhage in minipigs: histology, behavior, and intracranial pressure in a double-injection model

  • Experimental research -Vascular
  • Published:
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Abstract

Background

Specific pathophysiological mechanism in intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) at high altitude is unclear, and at present, there is no relevant and suitable animal model.

Methods

A hypobaric chamber was used to simulate an altitude of 4,000 m. Autologous arterial blood (3 ml) was slowly infused into the right basal ganglia of minipigs by a double-injection method for producing ICH.

Results

The intracranial pressure and neurological score of the high-altitude group were significantly higher than those of the low-altitude (plain) group. The brain water contents and pathological lesions of perihematoma tissue were more severe in the high-altitude group.

Conclusions

The injury resulting from ICH at high altitude was more severe than that in the plain group. This model was able to produce controllable and reproducible hematomas and visible neurological deficits, which may be useful for future studies of the pathophysiology and functional rehabilitation of high-altitude ICH disease.

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Acknowledgments

This study was supported by the Sci & Tech Research Project of the “Eleventh Five-year Plan” for Medical Science Development of PLA (08G087).

Conflicts of interest

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Neurosurgery, Southwest Hospital, Third Military Medical University, Gaotanyan 30, Chongqing, 400038, China

    Haitao Zhu, Fei Li, Mingming Zou, Xingsen Xue, Jichao Yuan, Hua Feng & Jiangkai Lin

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  1. Haitao Zhu
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  2. Fei Li
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  3. Mingming Zou
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  4. Xingsen Xue
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  7. Jiangkai Lin
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Jiangkai Lin.

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Comment

Here is an interesting, well-designed, and elegantly presented experiment that proves a hypothesis of an admittedly somewhat obscure clinical problem. The authors seek to study deep hemorrhagic brain injury at high altitudes based on some clinical observations that stroke rates and stroke severity are increased among populations living in high places.

Their experiment used a double-injection stereotactic model of basal ganglia hemorrhage in minipigs, with sea-level and high-altitude groups (simulated in a hypobaric chamber) and sham-operated controls. Morphologic and clinical endpoints were studied. They have demonstrated that under high-altitude conditions (essentially hypoxia), behavioral and histological outcomes are worse, mirroring the clinical observational studies that formed the rationale for the experiment.

This is an issue that is of little clinical relevance to most of us, but it is an interesting and worthwhile consideration. Their strengths are of a well-designed trial, properly conducted, and elegantly presented. Their weakness is that it is purely descriptive at present, with no elements of the trial design allowing a methodological explanation of the observed difference. The findings are preliminary at best, but the method is sound and reproducible, and should they choose to continue these lines of investigation, perhaps some mechanistic data and explanations will come next, which would be the true advance of their work.

Christopher M. Loftus

Maywood, IL, USA

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Zhu, H., Li, F., Zou, M. et al. Experimental high-altitude intracerebral hemorrhage in minipigs: histology, behavior, and intracranial pressure in a double-injection model. Acta Neurochir 155, 655–661 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-013-1618-z

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00701-013-1618-z

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