Journal of neurotrauma
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Journal of neurotrauma · Sep 1997
ReviewIndomethacin in the management of elevated intracranial pressure: a review.
Elevated intracranial pressure occurs frequently in patients with severe head injury. A number of studies in recent years suggest that indomethacin may be useful in the management of elevated intracranial pressure. ⋯ This review summarizes the basic and clinical studies of the effects of indomethacin on cerebral blood flow, brain edema, and intracranial pressure. The pharmacology of indomethacin, and issues for future investigation in the use of indomethacin in severe head injury, are discussed.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Sep 1997
Morris water maze deficits in rats following traumatic brain injury: lateral controlled cortical impact.
This experiment utilized a laterally placed controlled cortical impact model of traumatic brain injury (TBI) to assess changes on spatial learning and memory in the Morris water maze (MWM). Adult rats were subjected to one of two different levels of cortical injury, mild (1 mm) or moderate (2 mm) deformation, and subsequently tested for their ability to learn (acquisition) or remember (retention) a spatial task, 7 or 14 days after injury. ⋯ Although the moderately injured animals demonstrated significant histopathology in the cortex and hippocampus, mildly injured subjects demonstrated no obvious tissue destruction, but did manifest significant behavioral change. These results demonstrate that a laterally placed controlled cortical impact is capable of producing significant cognitive deficits on both acquisition and retention paradigms utilizing the MWM.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Sep 1997
Transiently increased basilar artery flow velocity following severe head injury: a time course transcranial Doppler study.
Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography has been used to study changes in cerebral hemodynamics following head injury. However, most studies evaluated the anterior circulation and little information exists on transcranial Doppler of the vertebrobasilar arteries after head injury. ⋯ A significant number of patients develop increased flow velocities compatible with vasospasm in the basilar artery after severe head injury. This phenomenon may represent an additional factor that contributes to the poor outcome of severely head-injured patients.
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Journal of neurotrauma · Sep 1997
NMDA-receptor antagonist protects neurons from secondary degeneration after partial optic nerve crush.
Damage resulting from a partial acute lesion of white matter in the central nervous system (CNS) gradually spreads also to neurons that escaped the primary injury, resulting in their degeneration. Such spreading has been referred to as secondary degeneration. In order to demonstrate that this degeneration is indeed secondary to that caused by the acute insult, as well as to investigate the mechanism underlying the spread of damage and ways in which to protect neurons from such damage, we have proposed the use of partial lesion of the rodent optic nerve as a model. ⋯ A positive VEP response to light was obtained in 90% of the MK-801 treated animals and in only 50% of injured controls. The questions regarding whether the secondary degeneration of initially spared neurons starts in their cell bodies or in their axons, and consequently the identity of the primary site of their protection by MK-801, are discussed in relation to the absence of N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors on nerve fibers. The present findings may have implications for both acute and chronic injuries of the CNS.