Vascular permeability precedes spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage in stroke-prone spontaneously hypertensive rats.
OBJECTIVE
Stroke-prone spontaneous hypertensive rats (SHRsp) fed a high-salt diet develop malignant hypertension, blood-brain barrier breakdown, and spontaneous intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). The precise spatial and temporal relationship between these events has not been well-delineated.


METHODS
Ten SHRsp male rats, fed a high-salt diet, were imaged weekly using MRI, starting at 12 weeks of age. T1-weighted (with and without Gd), T2-weighted, and T2* sequences were acquired. Permeability maps were calculated.


RESULTS
Seven SHRsp rats had spontaneous ICH develop before death. Five of the 7 rats had focally increased vascular permeability at the site of the ICH; 3 of these rats had vascular permeability 1 to 2 weeks before spontaneous ICH.


CONCLUSIONS
Salt-loaded SHRsp rats have increased vascular permeability up to 2 weeks before ICH, predicting hemorrhage both in space and time. These results suggest that hypertensive ICH is preceded by focal vasculopathy detectable by Gd leak.
Lee
Jin-Moo
JM
Zhai
Guihua
G
Liu
Qingwei
Q
Gonzales
Ernesto R
ER
Yin
Kejie
K
Yan
Ping
P
Hsu
Chung Y
CY
Vo
Katie D
KD
Lin
Weili
W
D000818:Animals; D001794:Blood Pressure; D001812:Blood-Brain Barrier; D002199:Capillary Permeability; D002543:Cerebral Hemorrhage / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology; D006973:Hypertension; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging / Q000379:methods; D008297:Male; D010539:Permeability; D051381:Rats; D011918:Rats, Inbred SHR; D011921:Rats, Inbred WKY; D020521:Stroke / Q000473:pathology*; D013997:Time Factors