Microdialysis in the human brain: review of its applications

The analysis of brain extracellular fluid can provide essential information about both the physiology and the pathology of the human nervous system. The introduction of microdialysis into the clinical sciences has provided a new opportunity to study this environment. Using microdialysis, endogenous substances can be obtained and drugs can be delivered in very close proximity to the receptors and ion channels on neuronal membranes. In this sense, microdialysis can be regarded as a novel technique since it can continuously measure interstitial brain activity in living tissue while causing minimal adverse effects. Although it has been well established as an experimental technique for neurochemistry, the true utility of microdialysis as a clinical tool is still being defined. The potential clinical applications of microdialysis to characterize the human brain extracellular environment in patients with pathologic conditions has grown rapidly. The number of publications in which microdialysis has been performed in clinical studies has been increasing during recent years and this article gives a summary of those reports where microdialysis was applied in the study of human brain disorders.