The clot thickens - Thrombolysis and combination therapies

Stroke in the human is most frequently caused by an intra-arterial clot. In order to investigate human stroke, appropriate and relevant animal models must be selected. Since the only approved treatment of stroke is that of re combinant tissue plasminogen activator (rtPA) the models selected should be amenable to thrombolytic treatment. We therefore describe a new model of e mbolic stroke in the rat in which a fibrin rich clot is placed via the inte rnal carotid artery (ICA) at the origin of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) . Data are summarized describing treatment of embolic stroke with rtPA admi nistered at various times after stroke, the use of combination anti-adhesio n molecule and rtPA therapy, and the application of MRI to monitor the temp oral evolution of physiological changes within ischemic tissue with and wit hout rtPA intervention and to predict therapeutic efficacy.