Pathophysiology of the human brain after stroke, monitored by positron emission tomography

Six stroke patients had positron tomograms both in the acute stage of the cerebrovascular accident (16 to 38 h after onset), and one week later. In and around the infarct, the studies revealed a wide range of metabolic states. In the healthy regions of the brain, all measured physiological variables, including the density of capillaries that transported glucose, blood flow, and oxygen and glucose metabolism, changed in parallel (recruitment). In the regions suffering the consequences of stroke, in the second study, the physiological couple between capillary density, metabolism, and flow was significantly impaired, and the impairment was proportional to the severity of ischemia in the first study. The research report of these findings appeared in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism (Gjedde et al. 1990).