A study on CT values and GFAP expression in the experimental cerebral infarction of rats

Objective The CT values and glial fibrillary acidic Drotein (GFAP) expression changes within 24 hours in the cerebral infarction of rats were observed in order to evaluate the time of infarction indirectly. Methods The animal models of cerebral infarction due to the embolism of middle cerebral arteries were replicated reference to Longa’s thread embolism method. The rats with cerebral infarction in right hemisphere and without cerebral infarction in left cerebral hemisphere were scanned with CT at different time after cerebral infarction,then the CT values were measured and their differences were calculated. At the same time,the GFAP expression changes were detected by immunohistochemical technique (SP method). Results The infarction focuses were observed in all rats in 6 hours group. The differences of the CT values in the infarction hemisphere (right side in brain) and non-infarction (left side in brain) hemisphere had in linear relationship,and the GFAP expression also related to the time of infarction to certain degree. Conclusion Cerebral infarction due to embolism of blood vessel could be diagnosed at least 6 hours after middle cerebral artery occlusion. The time of cerebral infarction could be inferred by the difference of CT values between the infarction and non-infarction hemispheres and the changes of GFAP expression.