Table 2

Assessment of blood–brain barrier permeability by Evans blue dye content in brain tissue

Measurement
Group (n)
Left hemisphere
Right hemisphere
P

EB dye (μg/g)
C (8)
0.00160 ± 0.0003
0.00145 ± 0.0003
0.33

S (8)
0.00466 ± 0.0002a,b
0.00641 ± 0.0003c,d
0.13

C-Mg (8)
0.00135 ± 0.0002
0.00145 ± 0.0003
0.44

S-Mg (8)
0.00218 ± 0.0005
0.00199 ± 0.0007
0.57
KW

19.720
23.039

d.f.

3
3

P

< 0.001
< 0.0001


Abbreviations: d.f., degrees of freedom; EB, Evans blue; KW, Kruskal–Wallis test statistic; P, approximate χ2 P value. Groups: sham control (C), sham control MgSO4-treated (C-Mg), septic (S) and septic MgSO4-treated (S-Mg). Data are expressed as means ± standard deviation.

Dunn's multiple comparisons test: aseptic versus sham control, P < 0.01; bseptic versus sham control MgSO4-treated, P < 0.001; cseptic versus sham control, P < 0.001; dseptic versus sham control MgSO4-treated, P < 0.001. A Mann–Whitney test was used for within-group comparisons. Two-tailed P values are shown in the last column.

Esen et al. Critical Care 2005 9:R18   doi:10.1186/cc3004