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Ann Thorac Surg 2005;79:1307-1314
© 2005 The Society of Thoracic Surgeons

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Original articles: Cardiovascular

Use of a Maze to Detect Cognitive Dysfunction in a Porcine Model of Hypothermic Circulatory Arrest

^a Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, New York, New York
^b Department of Neurosurgery,New York, New York
^c Department of Biomathematics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, New York, New York

Accepted for publication May 12, 2004.

^_* Address reprint requests to Dr R. B. Griepp, Mount Sinai School of Medicine, Department of Cardiothoracic Surgery, One Gustave L. Levy Place, Box 1028, New York, NY 10029 (E-mail: hagl{at}exch.thg.mh-hannover.de).

BACKGROUND: Hypothermic circulatory arrest (HCA) can result in cognitive impairment not reflected by histopathology or gross neurologic observation. We tested the sensitivity of two multi-room maze tasks in detecting cerebral dysfunction after HCA in pigs.

METHODS: Twenty-seven pigs were studied, divided between two tasks. 13 underwent 90 minutes HCA at 20°C and were trained from postoperative day (POD) 7; 14 were unoperated controls. The maze includes a holding area, 8 rooms, and a center hallway. One piece of apple is placed in each baited room on each of 10 days of learning evaluation. After a pig enters a room, doors to all other rooms close, and the pig must return to the holding area. In task 1, 6 of 8 rooms were baited, and each day's session ended when each baited room had been entered, or after 20 trials. In task 2, initially only the right- or left-sided rooms were baited. Pigs were evaluated each day until they entered 4 baited rooms, or for 15 trials; the process was then repeated, baiting the other side.

RESULTS: Intraoperative physiology and postoperative recovery showed no differences between task 1 or 2 pigs. Task 1 did not distinguish between control and HCA groups (p = 0.5), but task 2 revealed significantly (p = 0.04) better learning in controls.

CONCLUSIONS: The significantly poorer performance of pigs after HCA suggests that the reversal of baited rooms in task 2 provides the sensitivity to detect cognitive dysfunction. The maze is a promising tool to investigate in pigs the mild cerebral damage often seen after HCA.

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INVITED COMMENTARY

Eline F. Bruggemans, Anton van Boxtel, and Hans A. Huysmans
Ann. Thorac. Surg. 2005 79: 1314-1315. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

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				N. Khaladj, S. Peterss, P. Oetjen, R. von Wasielewski, G. Hauschild, M. Karck, A. Haverich, and C. Hagl Hypothermic circulatory arrest with moderate, deep or profound hypothermic selective antegrade cerebral perfusion: which temperature provides best brain protection? Eur J Cardiothorac Surg, September 1, 2006; 30(3): 492 - 498. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]