Abnormality of the xenon brain:blood partition coefficient and blood flow in cerebral infarction: an in vivo assessment using transmission computed tomography.

Xenon-enhanced computed tomography (CT) was used to analyze, in vivo, the patterns of blood flow of cerebral infarction in a nonhuman primate model. Consistent and reproducible results were attained utilizing the numerical data from CT scans obtained during the inhalation of nonradioactive xenon. The spatial resolution of CT defined a morphophysiologic map of the variability in brain:blood partition coefficient and flow rate constant that exist within and around an infarct. Both the flow and the partition coefficient were significantly diminished in the ischemic focus in all animals studied. Although the partition coefficients were normal, the flow was decreased in the other locales sampled in the ipsilateral hemispheres. In the contralateral hemispheres, both flows and partition coefficients were within the range of normal for adolescent baboons.