MICRODIALYSIS IN THE HUMAN BRAIN - REVIEW OF ITS APPLICATIONS

The analysis of brain extracellular fluid can provide essential inform ation about both the physiology and the pathology of the human nervous system. The introduction oi microdialysis into the clinical sciences has provided a new opportunity to study this environment. Using microd ialysis, endogenous substances can be obtained and drugs can be delive red in very close proximity to the receptors and ion channels on neuro nal membranes. In this sense, microdialysis can be regarded as a novel technique since it can continuously measure interstitial brain activi ty in living tissue while causing minimal adverse effects. Although it has been well established as an experimental technique for neurochemi stry, the true utility of microdialysis as a clinical tool is still be ing defined. The potential clinical applications oi microdialysis to c haracterize the human brain extracellular environment in patients with pathologic conditions has grown rapidly. The number of publications i n which microdialysis has been performed in clinical studies has been increasing during recent years and this article gives a summary oi tho se reports where microdialysis was applied in the study oi human brain disorders.