Ml. Gyngell et al., TRANSIENT CELL DEPOLARIZATION AFTER PERMANENT MIDDLE CEREBRAL-ARTERY OCCLUSION - AN OBSERVATION BY DIFFUSION-WEIGHTED MRI AND LOCALIZED H-1-MRS, Magnetic resonance in medicine, 31(3), 1994, pp. 337-341
Focal cerebral ischemia causes rapid intensity changes in diffusion-we
ighted images (DWI) and elevated lactate as detected by localized prot
on spectroscopy (H-1-MRS). To investigate whether such changes can als
o be evoked by periischemic depolarizations, we combined DWI and H-1-M
RS measurements with DC potential recordings. About 40 min after occlu
sion of the middle cerebral artery in a rat, a negative DC deflection
was observed indicating transient cell depolarization. Coincidentally
with the depolarization a transient increase of the DWI signal intensi
ty and a partially reversible increase of lactate occurred in the peri
phery of the ischemic territory. These results show that peri-ischemic
depolarization, known to contribute to the evolution of cerebral infa
rction, evokes disturbances that can be detected by DWI and H-1-MRS.