Rich collaterals in clinically unsuspected basilar artery occlusion-as good as it gets.

Basilar artery occlusion (BAO) is generally considered an emergency and is associated with high mortality and poor functional outcome. Although cases with more benign course without thrombolysis treatment have occasionally been reported, to our knowledge there is only one previous report in which angiography, almost accidentally revealed a clinically unsuspected BAO. A 45-year-old man with treated hypertension and lipidemia had three distinct isolated episodes of dizziness, 2-3 months before he was referred by an internist for an ultrasound neurovascular evaluation.

Predictable ventricular shift after focal cerebral ischaemia in rats: practical considerations for intraventricular therapeutic interventions.

Intracerebroventricular (ICV) route of administration is a useful experimental method to study the effects of chemicals or cellular grafts in the ventricular compartment of the brain after focal ischaemia. However, the induced oedema may cause structural dislocating phenomena and render a stereotaxic ICV invasion difficult and practically unavailable especially during the acute post-ischaemia phase. The aim of this study was to measure these structural ventricular dislocations and set new stereotaxic coordinates for successful and cost-effective ICV invasion 6-18 h after focal cerebral ischaemia.

Effectiveness of a new modified intraluminal suture for temporary middle cerebral artery occlusion in rats of various weight.

Intraluminal temporary middle cerebral artery occlusion (MCAO) is a common model of ischemic stroke in the rat with significant, suture and weight-dependent variability along with increased risk of subarachnoid haemorrhage (SAH). Our purpose was to increase reproducibility and decrease SAH using a modification of the Koizumi suture. We compared a Koizumi 5/0 Ethilon poly-l-lysine-coated suture (s-2, group B) to an identical, uncoated one (s-1, group A) and the Belayev's 3/0 suture (s-3, group C), in the 2-h MCAO model in Wistar rats of varying weight (310-527 g).

Evaluation of the stability of blood flow over time in the dominant hemisphere: a functional transcranial Doppler study.

Functional transcranial Doppler (fTCD) has been used for the identification of cerebral hemispheric dominance in various cognitive tasks. In our study, we have used fTCD with the aim to compare blood flow patterns in the hemispheres not only during the task activation periods but also in the post-stimulus phase. Normal volunteers, 25 right and 25 left-handed, were included.