MR imaging of acute experimental ischemia in cats.

The evolution of acute cerebral ischemia was documented by magnetic resonance (MR) imaging in 13 mongrel cats with occlusion of the middle cerebral artery through a transorbital approach. The animals were imaged under anesthesia at intervals from 30 min to 10 days after production of the lesion. An MR imager operating at 0.35 T was used with multislice, multi-spin-echo technique (TR = 500-2000 msec; TE = 28, 56 msec). The animals were sacrificed after imaging for pathologic correlation. Infarcts beyond 4 hr of age were visualized in all subjects. The earliest infarct was seen at 30 min (two cats) as an area of high signal intensity on T2-weighted images. In three other cats, however, 3-hr-old infarcts were not detectable. In one animal, a hemorrhage within a 1-week-old area of infarction was not characterized by MR imaging but was identified on CT scanning. The mass effect of the infarction appeared greatest at 2-4 days after infarction. The basal ganglia showed ischemic effects to best advantage. MR imaging offers previously unavailable sensitivity for the early noninvasive detection of cerebral ischemia in vivo.