Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography detection on cerebrovascular flow for evaluating neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy modeling

Jin-Xiang Liu; Chang-Le Fang; Kun Zhang; Rui-Fang Ma; Hong-Su Zhou; Li Chen; Qiu-Lin Wang; Yu-Xuan Lu; Ting-Hua Wang; Liu-Lin Xiong

doi:10.3389/fnins.2023.962001

Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography detection on cerebrovascular flow for evaluating neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy modeling

Front Neurosci. 2023 May 12:17:962001. doi: 10.3389/fnins.2023.962001. eCollection 2023.

Authors

Jin-Xiang Liu^#^{1

2}, Chang-Le Fang^#^{2

3}, Kun Zhang⁴, Rui-Fang Ma², Hong-Su Zhou¹, Li Chen⁵, Qiu-Lin Wang⁶, Yu-Xuan Lu³, Ting-Hua Wang^{2

5}, Liu-Lin Xiong^{1

7}

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesiology, Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University, Zunyi, Guizhou, China.
² Laboratory Animal Department, Kunming Medical University, Kunming, China.
³ School of Anesthesiology, Southwest Medical University, Luzhou, China.
⁴ Shantou Ultrasonic Instrument Research Institute Co., Ltd., Shantou, Guangdong, China.
⁵ Institute of Neurological Disease, Translational Neuroscience Center, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China.
⁶ Department of Clinical Medicine, Chongqing Medical University, Chongqing, China.
⁷ Yunnan Key Laboratory of Primate Biomedical Research, Kunming University of Science and Technology, Kunming, China.

^# Contributed equally.

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to investigate the feasibility of Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography (TCD) in evaluating neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy (NHIE) modeling through monitoring the alteration of cerebrovascular flow in neonatal hypoxic-ischemic (HI) rats.

Methods: Postnatal 7-day-old Sprague Dawley (SD) rats were divided into the control group, HI group, and hypoxia (H) group. TCD was applied to assess the changes of cerebral blood vessels, cerebrovascular flow velocity, and heart rate (HR) in sagittal and coronal sections at 1, 2, 3, and 7 days after the operation. For accuracy, cerebral infarct of rats was examined by 2,3,5-Triphenyl tetrazolium chloride (TTC) staining and Nissl staining to simultaneously verify the establishment of NHIE modeling.

Results: Coronal and sagittal TCD scans revealed obvious alteration of cerebrovascular flow in main cerebral vessels. Obvious cerebrovascular back-flow was observed in anterior cerebral artery (ACA), basilar artery (BA), middle cerebral artery (MCA) of HI rats, along with accelerated cerebrovascular flows in the left internal carotid artery (ICA-L) and BA, decreased flows in right internal carotid artery (ICA-R) relative to those in the H and control groups. The alterations of cerebral blood flows in neonatal HI rats indicated successful ligation of right common carotid artery. Besides, TTC staining further validated the cerebral infarct was indeed caused due to ligation-induced insufficient blood supply. Damage to nervous tissues was also revealed by Nissl staining.

Conclusion: Cerebral blood flow assessment by TCD in neonatal HI rats contributed to cerebrovascular abnormalities observed in a real-time and non-invasive way. The present study elicits the potentials to utilize TCD as an effective means for monitoring the progression of injury as well as NHIE modeling. The abnormal appearance of cerebral blood flow is also beneficial to the early warning and effective detection in clinical practice.

Keywords: Transcranial Doppler Ultrasonography; cerebral blood vessels; cerebral infarct; cerebrovascular flow; neonatal hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy modeling.

Grants and funding

This study was financially supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 82001604), Science and Technology Plan Project of Guizhou Province [Guizhou Science and Technology Foundation-KZ (2021) General 368], and Joint Fund of Zunyi Science and Technology Bureau-Affiliated Hospital of Zunyi Medical University (No. HZ2020250).