The collateral circulation is crucial for the pathophysiology and outcome of acute cortical ischemia.Current understanding of collateral circulation still remains sparse,largely due to prior limitations of spatial or/and temporal resolution in methods to evaluate these diminutive redistributive routes of cerebral blood flow(CBF)especially in leptomeningeal anastomoses that connected cortical arteries.In the study,based on a mini-stroke model,laser speckle imaging with high spatiotemporal resolution was used to assess the dynamic evolution of the collateral circulation around a mini-ischemia in the rat cortex.We found that the blood flow and diameter in the intra-arterial anastomoses were enhanced immediately after the ligation of one branch of middle cerebral artery and recovered to baseline level as arterial recirculation was performed.Whereas the communicative flow-through of the posterior cerebral artery and the middle cerebral artery anastomoses was not significant enough to be determined.This is the evidence that intra-arterial anastomoses were the primary routes to restore blood flow into the ischemic territory during the acute phase of ischemia,and laser speckle imaging method was proven as a powerful tool to be potential for subserving further investigation of the collateral circulation.
WEIHUA LUOPENGCHENG LIZHEN WANGSHAOQUN ZENGQINGMING LUO
