title: Cerebral vasospasm and corticospinal tract injury induced by a modified rat model of subarachnoid hemorrhage.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Double-hemorrhage rat models of subarachnoid hemorrhages (SAH) are most effective at simulating delayed cerebral vasospasms (CVS). The present study modified the models to minimize additional trauma and investigated injury of the corticospinal tract (CST) using diffusion tensor imaging (DTI).
  
  
  METHODS
  On the first day, 0.3ml of autologous arterial blood was collected by puncturing the caudal artery and injected into the cisterna magna via percutaneous puncture; and the operation was repeated on the third day. The diameters of the basilar artery (BA), middle cerebral artery (MCA), and anterior cerebral artery (ACA) were measured by magnetic resonance angiography on days 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 post-SAH. Meanwhile, on days 3, 7, 11, 15 and 19, DTI was performed to evaluate the injury of the CST at cerebral peduncle (CP) and pyramidal tract (Py) by measuring fractional anisotropy (FA) value.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Blood was deposited mainly in the basal cistern. Diameters of BA, MCA, and ACA were significantly reduced. FA value of the CP was lower in the SAH group than in the control group; but FA value of Py wasn't different between the two groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  This is a minimally-invasive and high performance rat model of SAH. Additionally, the occurrence of CVS is firm and the axons in CP are injured.
authors.affiliation: Department of Postgraduate, Third Military Medical University, Chongqing, China; Department of Neurosurgery, Chengdu Military General Hospital, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Yang
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Qin
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurosurgery, Chengdu Military General Hospital, Chengdu, China. Electronic address: 18712482@qq.com.
authors.forename: Jian-wen
authors.initials: JW
authors.lastname: Gu
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatrics, Chengdu Military General Hospital, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Gai-li
authors.initials: GL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Department of Geriatrics, Chengdu Military General Hospital, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Xian-Hua
authors.initials: XH
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Department of Neurology, Chengdu Military General Hospital, Chengdu, China.
authors.forename: Ke
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yu
authors.affiliation: Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China. Electronic address: gaofabao@yahoo.com.
authors.forename: Fa-bao
authors.initials: FB
authors.lastname: Gao
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D020771:Anterior Cerebral Artery / Q000473:pathology; D001488:Basilar Artery / Q000473:pathology; D056324:Diffusion Tensor Imaging; D004195:Disease Models, Animal; D018810:Magnetic Resonance Angiography; D008297:Male; D020768:Middle Cerebral Artery / Q000473:pathology; D011712:Pyramidal Tracts / Q000473:pathology*; D051381:Rats; D017207:Rats, Sprague-Dawley; D013345:Subarachnoid Hemorrhage / Q000150:complications* / Q000473:pathology; D020301:Vasospasm, Intracranial / Q000209:etiology* / Q000473:pathology
keywords: Cerebral vasospasm; Corticospinal tract; Diffusion tensor imaging; Double-hemorrhage model; Magnetic resonance angiography; Subarachnoid hemorrhage