Comparative study on pathogenesis of selective cerebral lesions in carbon monoxide poisoning and nitrogen hypoxia in cats

Summary

Since in a previous study hypoxia and subsequent hypotension were considered to be essential for the pathogenesis of carbon monoxide encephalopathy (CO-encephalopathy), experiments were conducted to see whether a combination of nitrogen hypoxia and subsequent systemic hypotension of similar degree and duration as in the previous experimental CO poisoning could induce the same lesion in the CNS of cats. The partial pressure of blood oxygen was reduced to less than 26 mm Hg by increasing the concentration of nitrogen in N₂/O₂ gas to be inhaled in 1.5 h and then the aortic blood pressure (BP) was reduced to 60–80 mm Hg by blood depletion and ganglion-blockage for 1 h. In 11 of the 15 cats, lesions were produced in the CNS which were similar by light and electron microscopy to those in CO-encephalopathy. In control groups which were treated by hypoxemia only, hypotension only or a combination of CO₂-gas inhalation and hypotension without hypoxemia, such lesions were not found in the cerebral white matter.

Considering the pathogenesis of lesions in the cerebral white matter in both nitrogen hypoxia and CO-poisoning, two factors, i.e., hypoxemia and subsequent systemic hypotension, are common and essential. Further, the enormous vasodilation in the cerebral white matter induced by hypoxemia and subsequent drop in BP seem to cause a more severe circulatory disturbance in the cerebral white matter than in the cortex.