BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Thrombolytic therapy with intravenous tPA must be administered within 3 hours after stroke onset. However, stroke onset time cannot be established in 20% to 45% of potential patients. We propose that the rate of increase of the brain concentration of sodium ([Na+]br) after stroke, monitored using sodium MRI in a rat model of cortical ischemia, is linear in each individual animal, can locate the ischemic region, and can be used to estimate onset time. METHODS: After induction of focal cortical ischemia in rats under isoflurane anesthesia, [Na+]br time course maps were acquired continuously on a 3 T whole body scanner from 2 to 7 hours after occlusion followed by T2-weighted proton images. Microtubule-associated protein-2 immunostained brain sections were used to verify the location of the infarct. RESULTS: The ischemic region identified with microtubule-associated protein-2 corresponded to the region of maximum [Na+]br increase (P<0.001; n=5), and all of the animals demonstrated high linearity. [Na+]br increased at a mean rate of 25+/-4.7%/h in ischemic tissue (P=0.013) but not in normal cortex (1.0+/-1.1%/h; P=0.42). The mean onset time error was 1+/-4 minutes (n=4). CONCLUSIONS: These results of sodium MRI show that the region of maximum [Na+]br increase corresponds to the ischemic region. Although [Na+]br increases at a different rate in each animal, the increase is linear, and, therefore, onset time can be estimated. These findings suggest that this method can be used as a ticking clock to estimate time elapsed after vascular occlusion.
BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: Thrombolytic therapy with intravenous tPA must be administered within 3 hours after stroke onset. However, stroke onset time cannot be established in 20% to 45% of potential patients. We propose that the rate of increase of the brain concentration of sodium ([Na+]br) after stroke, monitored using sodium MRI in a rat model of cortical ischemia, is linear in each individual animal, can locate the ischemic region, and can be used to estimate onset time. METHODS: After induction of focal cortical ischemia in rats under isoflurane anesthesia, [Na+]br time course maps were acquired continuously on a 3 T whole body scanner from 2 to 7 hours after occlusion followed by T2-weighted proton images. Microtubule-associated protein-2 immunostained brain sections were used to verify the location of the infarct. RESULTS: The ischemic region identified with microtubule-associated protein-2 corresponded to the region of maximum [Na+]br increase (P<0.001; n=5), and all of the animals demonstrated high linearity. [Na+]br increased at a mean rate of 25+/-4.7%/h in ischemic tissue (P=0.013) but not in normal cortex (1.0+/-1.1%/h; P=0.42). The mean onset time error was 1+/-4 minutes (n=4). CONCLUSIONS: These results of sodium MRI show that the region of maximum [Na+]br increase corresponds to the ischemic region. Although [Na+]br increases at a different rate in each animal, the increase is linear, and, therefore, onset time can be estimated. These findings suggest that this method can be used as a ticking clock to estimate time elapsed after vascular occlusion.
Authors: Victor E Yushmanov; Alexander Kharlamov; Tamer S Ibrahim; Tiejun Zhao; Fernando E Boada; Stephen C Jones Journal: NMR Biomed Date: 2011-01-25 Impact factor: 4.044
Authors: Martha E O'Donnell; Yi-Je Chen; Tina I Lam; Kelleen C Taylor; Jeffrey H Walton; Steven E Anderson Journal: J Cereb Blood Flow Metab Date: 2012-11-14 Impact factor: 6.200
Authors: Friedrich Wetterling; Lindsay Gallagher; Jim Mullin; William M Holmes; Chris McCabe; I Mhairi Macrae; Andrew J Fagan Journal: J Cereb Blood Flow Metab Date: 2014-10-22 Impact factor: 6.200
Authors: Victor E Yushmanov; Alexander Kharlamov; Boris Yanovski; George LaVerde; Fernando E Boada; Stephen C Jones Journal: Brain Res Date: 2013-06-19 Impact factor: 3.252
Authors: Fernando E Boada; Yongxian Qian; Edwin Nemoto; Tudor Jovin; Charles Jungreis; S C Jones; Jonathan Weimer; Vincent Lee Journal: Transl Stroke Res Date: 2012-05-04 Impact factor: 6.829