0000000000525843
AUTHOR
Hanne Laakso
Elevated end systolic function in a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy
Sudden unexpected death in epilepsy (SUDEP) is a common cause of premature death amongst epilepsy patients. It is hypothesized to result from cardiorespiratory dysfunction, but the exact aetiology is unknown. The aim of this study was to determine if functional cardiovascular alterations were present in rats with chronic epileptic behaviour. Naive control rats were compared to a rat model of temporal lobe epilepsy that was induced using a repeated low-dose kainic acid (KA) protocol. The results indicate that end-systolic volume was significantly (p=0.01) higher in the epileptic group whilst end-diastolic volume did not reach significance (p=0.08). Ejection fraction, stroke volume, cardiac o…
Multi-band SWIFT enables quiet and artefact-free EEG-fMRI and awake fMRI studies in rat
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) studies in animal models provide invaluable information regarding normal and abnormal brain function, especially when combined with complementary stimulation and recording techniques. The echo planar imaging (EPI) pulse sequence is the most common choice for fMRI investigations, but it has several shortcomings. EPI is one of the loudest sequences and very prone to movement and susceptibility-induced artefacts, making it suboptimal for awake imaging. Additionally, the fast gradient-switching of EPI induces disrupting currents in simultaneous electrophysiological recordings. Therefore, we investigated whether the unique features of Multi-Band SWeep…