A study is being made of cerebral blood flow (CBF) in gerbils by Laser doppler velocimetry (LDV). Animals were subject to multiple bilateral carotid occlusions and studied for up to 3 hours. continuous measurement of CBF was made of the parietal cortex through the cranium. There was excellent consistency and repeatability from gerbil to gerbil. The essential features were: the CBF as revealed by LDV, dropped to zero during ischemia, arose upon release of ischemia to a value slightly above the pre-ischemic value, then declined to a much lower value over the hour before the next occlusion. The facility to LDV to measure rCBF continuously, rapidly and non-invasively lends itself to the stud of the effects of vasoactive drugs on the rCBF during and following multiple cerebral ischemias. We have tried a number of vasoactive drugs for the effect on the CBF and found papaverine most effective in improving the post bilateral carotid artery occlusion (BCAO) phase.
