Cerebroprotective effect of flunarizine.

The cerebroprotective effect of flunarizine was studied using the following methods: hypobaric hypoxia in mice, complete ischemia by decapitation in mice, anoxic hypoxia in mice, hemic hypoxia in rats, incomplete ischemia by bilateral carotid ligation in rats and asphyxic hypoxia in cats. Piracetam, meclofenoxate, nicergoline, naftidrofuryl, cinnarizine and nifedipine were studied as reference drugs. Flunarizine increased the survival time in all survival models. Its effect was most pronounced in complete ischemia model, and considerably higher than that of reference drugs. In asphyxic hypoxia flunarizine increased cortical resistance and shortened cortical recovery. The EEG frequency-amplitude analysis during asphyxic hypoxia showed a significant decrease of the slow-waves amplitudes of delta and theta range, and an increase of the fast-waves amplitudes of beta-2 range, changes indicating protective action.