Summary
The present study was undertaken to characterize the formation of ischemic brain edema using diffusion-weighted and T2-weighted magnetic resonance imaging in a rat model of focal ischemia. The extent of edema formation was measured from multislice diffusion-weighted and T2-weighted spin-echo images acquired at various times after ischemia. The spin-spin relaxation time (T2) and the apparent diffusion coefficient in normal and ischemic tissue were also determined. The results show that on the diffusion-weighted images the lesion was clearly visible at 30 minutes after ischemia, while on the T2-weighted images it became increasingly evident after 2–3 hours. On both types of images the hyperintense area increased in size over the first 48 hours. After 1 week the hyperintensity on the diffusion-weighted images rapidly disappeared and evolved as a hypointense lesion in the chronic phase. These results confirm the high sensitivity of diffusion-weighted MRI for the detection of early ischemia. The temporal course of the edema observed on T2W-images is in agreement with the reported increase of total water content occurring in this model. The increase of the lesion observed on the diffusion-weighted images during the first 2 days points to an aggravation of cytotoxic edema that parallels the changes in free water shown by the T2-weighted images. It is shown that the highly elevated T2's of the infarcted area several days after ischemia can substantially contaminate the diffusion-weighted images.
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Part of this research was carried out at the Netherlandsin vivo NMR facility at the Bijvoet Center for Biomolecular Research, which is supported by the Netherlands Organization for Scientific Research (NWO).
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Verheul, H.B., Berkelbach van der Sprenkel, J.W., Tulleken, C.A.F. et al. Temporal evolution of focal cerebral ischemia in the rat assessed by T2-weighted and diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Brain Topogr 5, 171–176 (1992). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01129046
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01129046