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Brain edema and blood-brain barrier permeability following quantitative cerebral microembolism

Journal Article · · Stroke; (United States)

Cerebral microemboli were formed in rats by injecting 4000 carbonized microspheres, 50 +- 10 mu in diameter, labelled with /sup 85/Sr, into the internal carotid artery. The use of radioactive microspheres as embolic agents enabled the number of microspheres to be determined in each cerebral hemisphere. The microspheres were mainly distributed in the cerebral hemisphere on the side of the injection. In 61 rats this hemisphere contained 582 +- 20 microspheres against 99 +- 9 in the contralateral hemisphere. Brain edema was assessed by measuring brain content of water, sodium and potassium. Blood-brain barrier (BBB) permeability was determined by brain accumulation of /sup 125/I-albumin. In the ipsilateral hemisphere brain edema and an increase in BBB permeability appeared 6 hours after embolization and progressed up to 48 hours. Twenty-four hours after embolization, significant correlations were observed between the microsphere content of the cerebral hemispheres and (1) increases in water and sodium levels, (2) the decrease in potassium level, (3) the increase in BBB permeability. The study of these correlations should make it possible to ignore the poor reproducibility of embolizations and to analyze with increased accuracy the results of various experiments.

Research Organization:
Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy, Dijon, France
OSTI ID:
6720563
Journal Information:
Stroke; (United States), Journal Name: Stroke; (United States) Vol. 10:1; ISSN SJCCA
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English