The effect of acute hypertension on blood-brain barrier permeability to albumin during experimentally induced epileptic seizures.

The present study was to examine the effect on the blood-brain barrier function of a rapid blood pressure elevation and the duration of this pressure during bicuculline and pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures. The experiments were carried out on Wistar rats. Evans blue was used as a blood-brain barrier tracer. Our results showed that the presence of blood pressure increase does not always result in blood-brain barrier leakage during convulsions. Besides the rate of increase in the pressure, the duration of this increased pressure was the important factor in the disruption of blood-brain barrier during bicuculline or pentylenetetrazol-induced seizures.