ORIGINAL ARTICLES   

Journal of Neurosurgical Sciences 1999 June;43(2):93-8

Copyright © 1999 EDIZIONI MINERVA MEDICA

language: English

Inconsistent MRI findings in acute pre-Willisian brain ischemia in rabbit: a useful model?

Visocchi M. ¹, Cabezas Cuevas D. ¹, Tartaglione T. ², Mastrojanni G. ³, Cioni B. ¹

¹ Institute of Neurosurgery, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy; ² Institute of Radiology, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy; ³ Institute of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care, Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Rome, Italy

Back­ground. We ­have inves­ti­gat­ed a mod­el of “pre­ter­mi­nal ische­mia” in ­order A) to ­assess ­the ­MRI find­ings ­and ­the repeat­abil­ity of ­the ana­tom­i­cal chang­es as ­showed by ­MRI, ­and B) to com­pare ­the ­data so ­obtained ­with ­the ­humans.
Meth­ods. Twen­ty rab­bits ­were ­used. ­Under gen­er­al anesthe­sia, ­the occlu­sion of 1) ­the ­two com­mon carot­id arter­ies (­from 2 ­hours up to 24 ­hours) ­was per­formed in 8 cas­es, ­and of 2) ­the ­epi-aor­tic ves­sels at ­the aor­tic ­arch (­from 2 ­hours up to 4 ­hours) ­was per­formed in 4 cas­es in gen­er­al anesthe­sia.
­Results. In ­the ves­sels occlu­sion ­group ­MRI ­study ­showed incon­sis­tent, incon­stant, pre­dom­i­nant­ly ­ill ­defined, lin­e­ar ­and/or spot­like hyper­in­tense ­deep cere­bral alter­a­tions, var­i­able in loca­tion, uni­lat­er­al ­and bilat­er­al in 8 cas­es. ­Although in carot­id occlu­sion ­the dam­age ­was ­already evi­dent with­in ­the ­first ­two ­hours, aor­tic ­arch occlu­sion ­was ­unable to pro­duce glo­bal ­brain lesion­al pat­tern ­even up to 4 ­hours. ­MRI ­study of ­the ­sham oper­at­ed ani­mals ­was neg­a­tive.
Con­clu­sions. ­The selec­tive vul­ner­abil­ity of ­mesial ­deep cere­bral struc­tures to hypox­ia, dif­fer­ent in loca­tion ­from ­the ­human’s, ­and ­the ­more effec­tive ­pre-Wil­li­sian com­pen­sa­tion, sug­gests to ­look ­for dif­fer­ent ani­mals ­when deal­ing ­with pre­ter­mi­nal ischem­ic mod­els com­par­able to ­the ­humans’ as stud­ied ­with ­MRI.