Mild to Moderate Hyperthermia Does Not Worsen Outcome after Severe Intracerebral Hemorrhage in Rats

Hyperthermia worsens outcome in clinical and experimental studies of ischemic stroke. Thus, we tested whether hyperthermia aggravates intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) in rats. A striatal hemorrhage was produced via an infusion of bacterial collagenase. In a preliminary experiment, we compared brain and core temperatures (via telemetry) during heating (infrared lamp). The brain temperature rise exceeded that produced by enforced core hyperthermia, which was used subsequently. In these experiments up to three hyperthermia conditions (versus normothermia) were tested including: hyperthermia (>38.5°C) over the first (HYP-1) or second 24 h period (HYP-2) after ICH and 3 h of 40°C hyperthermia starting 12 h after ICH (HYP-3). The HYP-1, HYP-2, and HYP-3 treatments did not affect functional deficits (e.g., spontaneous forelimb use, skilled reaching) or the volume of injury at 30 days. Furthermore, the HYP-1 treatment did not aggravate injury or deficits at 7 days. Bleeding and inflammation, which contribute to pathology, were not significantly altered by HYP-1 and HYP-3 treatments. Bleeding was assessed at 1 day, and macrophages and neutrophils were counted at 2 and 4 days. Accordingly, hyperthermia, under the present conditions, did not worsen outcome after striatal ICH.