Pediatric Susceptibility to Nerve Agent-Induced Seizures and Effectiveness of Anticonvulsant Treatments
Abstract
Organophosphate (OP) poisoning can result in status epilepticus (SE), and constitutes a medical emergency. Little data exist on OP-induced SE in immature animals, even though the immature brain is likely to respond differently to OPs, and the optimal therapies are also likely to differ from adults. Our previous results in designing a pediatric model to study the effects of the OP diisopropylfluorophosphate (DFP) showed that postnatal day 21 (P7) and P28 rats developed a robust, hours-long SE in response to the OP, which was a goal of the grant. However, P7 and P14 animals had few, if any, electrographic SE events and these events were all less than 1 hr. In order to further understand what may be occurring in P7 animals, we tested a 6-channel transmitter that could prove useful in determining whether electrographic seizures were focal in origin rather than generalized in these very young animals. We found that we could record EEG activity from P7 rat pups with very little noise, and the device was well tolerated. To examine whether P7 pups were even capable of sustaining electrographic seizures, we used kainic acid (KA), a direct glutamate agonist, to attempt to provoke SE. We found that while KA resulted in increased EEG activity, it was unclear whether this was indeed electrographic seizure activity. Further experiments are needed to examine any age-related effects of KA with our results from DFP.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 2017
- Accession Number
- AD1054767
Entities
People
- Erika A. Scholl
- Francis E. Dudek
Organizations
- University of Utah