[Mechanical properties of the brain during the development of postischemic edema]

The mechanical properties of the brain during the development of postischemic edema in rabbits were studied in vivo by an original method. The effect of the circulatory factors was removed during the study. The experiments showed that ischemia reduces the pliancy of the brain, this is indicative of compensatory processes in its tissue which limit the entry of water into it from the blood. Before the development of marked edema, however, pliancy diminishes which is conducive to advancement of edema. The last circumstance, just as the increase of hysteresis, is evidence that the brain becomes "poor" from the standpoint of the development of edema. The brain consistency index may be an objective in vivo criterion of the degree of water accumulation in it.