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(Stroke. 2001;32:925.)
© 2001 American Heart Association, Inc.

Original Contributions

Direct, Longitudinal Comparison of ¹H and ²³Na MRI After Transient Focal Cerebral Ischemia

Shao-Pow Lin, PhD; Sheng-Kwei Song, PhD; J. Philip Miller, PhD; Joseph J.H. Ackerman, PhD Jeffrey J. Neil, MD, PhD

From the Neuroscience Program (S.-P.L.) and Departments of Biostatistics (J.P.M.), Internal Medicine (J.J.H.A.), Pediatric Neurology (J.J.N.), and Radiology (J.J.H.A., J.J.N.), Washington University School of Medicine, St Louis, Mo, and the Department of Chemistry (S.-K.S., J.J.H.A.), Washington University, St Louis, Mo.

Correspondence to Jeffrey J. Neil, Biomedical MR Laboratory, Washington University School of Medicine, 4525 Scott Ave, Room 2313, St Louis, MO 63110. E-mail neil{at}wuchem.wustl.edu

Background and Purpose—²³Na MRI may offer new insight into the evaluation of tissue injury. We performed a direct, longitudinal, morphological comparison of ¹H T2 relaxation, ¹H apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC), ²³Na content, and histopathology after cerebral ischemia to address the hypotheses that (a) ²³Na MRI is unique in comparison to ¹H MRI, and (b) accumulation of ²³Na is an unambiguous marker for dead tissue.

Methods—Rats underwent 30 minutes of focal ischemia. MRIs of ¹H T2, ¹H ADC, and ²³Na content were acquired from 12 hours up to 1, 2, or 14 days after reperfusion. On excision, brains were stained with triphenyltetrazolium chloride (TTC).

Results—In all cases, the region of abnormality increased in size for 2 days. On day 5, both ¹H T2 and ADC temporarily appeared normal despite the presence of TTC-defined infarction. By comparison, the volume of tissue exhibiting abnormally intense ²³Na signal mirrored the TTC-defined infarct at all time points.

Conclusions—Regions of high ²³Na content correlate well with the TTC-defined infarct and may be a quantitative in vivo marker for dead tissue. In contrast, the dynamics of the ¹H T2 and ADC make it difficult to interpret these images without additional information because they may appear normal despite infarction. Neither type of ¹H image delineates dead tissue, and none of these methods predicts the potential infarct size at early time points.

Key Words: animal models • magnetic resonance imaging • sodium • stroke, experimental • rats

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