Philippe Garteiser1, Sabrina Doblas1, Fernando A. Bozza2, Marcus F. Oliveira3, Rebecca Cranford1, Debra Saunders1, Inna Jones1, Rheal A. Towner1, Hugo C. Castro-Faria-Neto2
1Advanced Magnetic Resonance Center, Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Oklahoma City, OK, USA; 2Immuno-Pharmacology Laboratory, Oswaldo Cruz Foundation, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil; 3Medicinal Biochemistry, University of Rio De Janeiro, Rio De Janeiro, Brazil
Despite the high mortality and incidence of sepsis-associated encephalopathies, little in vivo evidence is available on the physiology of the septic brain. Especially, magnetic resonance techniques have only recently garnered interest in this domain even though their relevance to other encephalopathies is already demonstrated. Using T2-weighted imaging, apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) mapping and localized spectroscopy of mice with a cecal ligation and puncture model of sepsis, we observed several distinctive features having a strong correlation to animal survival. In particular, changes were detected in the metabolic profile, brain basal vasculature integrity and tissue ADC of septic animals.