Brain Function, Pathophysiology and Heparin Therapy in Experimental Cerebral Sinus Vein Thrombosis

Abstract

Diagnosis of cerebral sinus vein thrombosis (SVT) is difficult to establish and, thus, rarely made by clinicians. For this reason it is frequently observed only at autopsy raising the suspicion that SVT often is a lethal disorder. Recent experience indicates, however, that SVT has a wide clinical spectrum reaching from discrete neurological deficits to most severe courses with coma [1]. Contrary to findings for arterial stroke, even severe neurological deficits arising from SVT have a likelihood of disappearing again. Due to the elusive nature and diagnostical problems of the disease, understanding of underlying mechanisms as well as therapeutical concepts are fragmentary and controversial. This may be attributable in part to the as yet limited experimental approaches and availability of animal models. To our knowledge, no experimental studies using small laboratory animals have been conducted so far for the investigation of pertinent functional and structural aspects of SVT. The current report analyzes functional parameters obtained in a new experimental model of SVT established by our group.