Photochemically Induced Vascular Thrombosis (Photothrombosis): Central Nervous System Consequences and Clinical Possibilities

Abstract

In central nervous system (CNS) injury induced by stroke, or by impact injury to the spinal cord (Balentine, 1985), vascular abnormalities leading to thrombosis or thromboembolism are often intimately involved in the expression of the clinical severity of the final disease state. However, in the interest of reproducibility, most animal models of “stroke” feature induction of cerebral ischemia by mechanical occlusion of brain arteries (Garcia, 1984; Pulsinelli and Brierley, 1979). The participation of thrombotic processes is thus obviated. In contrast, mechanical induction of experimental spinal cord injury is considered to facilitate rather realistic development of the manifestations seen clinically. Yet, exposure of the cord tissue prior to injury and disruption of the cord tissue at the time of ipjury complicate the reproducibility of the experiments (Koozekanani et al, 1976; Ford, 1983; Gale et al, 1985) and make it difficult to ascertain the contribution of vascular injury, whether direct or indirect, to the final outcome.