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. 2021 Mar;33(2):384-387.
doi: 10.1177/1040638720982989. Epub 2020 Dec 24.

Sodium distribution in the bovine brain

Megan C Romano  1 , Grace E Higgs  1 , Michelle N Helm  1 , Darko Stefanovski  2 , Cynthia L Gaskill  1
Affiliations

Sodium distribution in the bovine brain

Megan C Romano et al. J Vet Diagn Invest. 2021 Mar.

Abstract

Fatal sodium intoxication can occur in many species, including cattle, and postmortem confirmation often includes brain sodium concentration determination. Published information regarding brain sodium distribution in cattle was not found in a literature review. Our study was designed to determine whether sodium is uniformly distributed throughout the bovine brain. Eight whole bovine brains were collected from adult cattle with no neurologic signs or history suggestive of sodium intoxication, and with a non-neurologic cause of death diagnosed on gross examination. Brains were divided mid-sagittally. One hemisphere of each brain was homogenized. Subsamples were obtained from the remaining hemisphere (rostral, caudal, and dorsal cerebral cortices; brainstem, thalamus, and cerebellum). Sodium concentrations of regions and homogenates were measured by inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry. Data were analyzed using repeated measures ANOVA with a pairwise post-test to compare mean sodium concentration of each region to mean homogenate sodium concentration. Brain sodium was not uniformly distributed; sodium concentrations in different regions of the same brain varied somewhat unpredictably. Homogenization of an entire brain hemisphere appears to be the ideal method of sample preparation to ensure accurate brain sodium concentration measurement in adult cattle.

Keywords: Bovine; brain; cattle; intoxication; poisoning; salt; sodium; toxicosis.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declaration of conflicting interests: The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.

Figures

Figure 1.
Figure 1.
Brain sodium concentration by region and homogenate. All values reported on a wet-weight basis. Bars represent means. Dashed line represents upper end of one published reference range for brain sodium in cattle. ppm = parts per million.
Figure 2.
Figure 2.
Regional and homogenate brain sodium concentrations by animal. All values are reported on a wet-weight basis. Dashed line represents upper end of one published reference range for brain sodium in cattle. ppm = parts per million.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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