Suloctidil treatment prevents the development of post-traumatic feline spinal cord ischemia

The effects of suloctidil (1.0 mg/kg i.v.) on white matter spinal cord blood flow (SCBF) and somatosensory evoked potential (SEP) conduction were assessed in a feline lumbar spinal cord contusion model. SEP conduction ceased immediately after a 500 g-cm injury and did not recover. SCBF following suloctidil declined by only 12% from pre-injury levels over the 4 hr experiment as compared to a 42% decline observed following vehicle injection. Accordingly, 7/8 vehicle cats, but only 1/5 suloctidil-treated cats, had 4 hr SCBF values of less than 10 ml/100 g/min. Bradycardiac and hypotensive effects of suloctidil were also noted. The ability of suloctidil to prevent post-traumatic ischemia may be useful in the acute treatment of spinal cord injury.