Background and Purpose—Results of our recent pilot clinical trial suggest that the efficacy of thrombolytic therapy in acute ischemic stroke may be enhanced by the coadministration of high-dose albumin. Here, we explored the microvascular hemodynamic effects of this combined therapy in a laboratory model of cortical arteriolar thrombosis.

Methods—We studied the cortical microcirculation of physiologically monitored rats in vivo by two-photon laser-scanning microscopy after plasma-labeling with fluorescein-dextran. We induced focal thrombosis in 30- to 50-µm cortical arterioles by laser irradiation and measured arteriolar flow velocity by repeated line-scanning. At 30 minutes post-thrombosis, we treated animals with the thrombolytic agent, reteplase, which was coadministered with either human albumin, 2 g/kg, or with saline control.

Results—Baseline arteriolar flow velocity averaged 3.8±0.7 mm/s, was immediately reduced by thrombosis to 22% to 25% of control values, and remained unchanged before treatment. Subthrombolytic doses of reteplase combined with saline led to a median increase in flow velocity to 37% of control distal to the thrombus (P=nonsignificant versus pretreatment). By contrast, reteplase combined with albumin therapy resulted in a prompt, highly significant increase of median flow velocity to 58% of control levels (P=0.013 versus reteplase+saline), which remained significantly higher than the reteplase+saline group at multiple time-points over the subsequent hour.

Conclusions—The beneficial effect of subthrombolytic doses of reteplase on microvascular hemodynamics distal to a cortical arteriolar thrombosis is markedly enhanced by the coadministration of high-dose albumin therapy; these results have important clinical implications for the management of patients with acute ischemic stroke.