Dynamic Phenomena caused by a Shock Wave in the Brain: Real-Time Diagnoses of the Rat Exposed to a Laser-Induced Shock Wave

Abstract

Recently, terrorism using explosive devices has been increasing, resulting in a large number of patients suffering from blastinduced traumatic brain injury (bTBI). However, the pathophysiology and mechanism of bTBI are not well understood and thus, methods for diagnosis and treatment of bTBI have not yet been established. We applied a laser-induced shock wave (LISW) to the rat brain, for which various real-time diagnoses were performed. We observed spreading depolarization, longlasting vasoconstriction and hypoxemia-oligemia in the brain even under the LISW conditions causing no changes in systemic physiological parameters and limited hemorrhage and contusion in the cortex. Key words：Blast-induced traumatic brain injury, laser-induced shock wave, rat model, real-time diagnosis, spreading depolarization, long-lasting hypoxemia