In situ deformations in the immature brain during rapid rotations.

Head trauma is the leading cause of death and debilitating injury in children. Computational models are important tools used to understand head injury mechanisms but they must be validated with experimental data. In this communication we present in situ measurements of brain deformation during rapid, nonimpact head rotation in juvenile pigs of different ages.

Development of a fluorescent microsphere technique for rapid histological determination of cerebral blood flow.

The purpose of this study was to develop a more efficient fluorescent microsphere method to facilitate the rapid use of the histological technique and to enable its use in large tissue regions. Using fluorescent plate/slide imaging technology and automated detection and analysis software, we were able to rapidly image, detect, and count 3 separate microsphere colors in 200 microm thick tissue sections from piglet brain. In resting newborn piglets (n=6) on isoflurane anesthesia, we measured a median total cerebral blood flow (CBF) of 105 ml/min/100g (range 27-206 ml/min/100 g).