Stenosis and vascular damage as a cause of thrombosis in the dog femoral artery.

We describe here an experimental model of peripheral arterial thrombosis and the effect of several drugs which are known to affect vessel and platelet biological functions. A similar method has been previously applied by us and others on dog coronary arteries. Male Beagle dogs, under pentobarbital anesthesia, were instrumented to measure arterial pressure, heart rate, ECG, femoral blood flow and expired CO2. A segment of the femoral artery was squeezed with forceps to damage the endothelium, and a plastic cylinder was placed around the vessel in the area of the damage. The cylinders had a length of 2 mm and an internal diameter of 1.6-1.8 mm. Under these circumstances blood flow in the stenosed artery was reduced by about 60-70% from control value and showed cyclic blood flow variations (CBFV). CBFV eventually led either to a total occlusion of the vessel (documented by blood flow measurement and by angiographic analysis), or to a spontaneous partial restoration of flow, followed by another decrease, in a repetitive fashion. Drug effect was monitored by observing the changes in frequency and amplitude of CBFV. Ketanserin (0.25 mg/kg), dazmegrel (0.5 mg/kg), and chlorpromazine (0.5 mg/kg), abolished or greatly reduced CBFV in all the experiments, while acetylsalycilic acid (ASA, 10 mg/kg) reduced or abolished CBFV in 60% of the treated dogs. Heparin (50 I.U./kg), dipyridamole (1.0 mg/kg) and prazosin (0.1 mg/kg) did not change CBFV. These results emphasize the importance of serotonin and thromboxane as mediators of vascular occlusion in this particular experimental model. This approach provides a reproducible in vivo preparation to study the pharmacological control of peripheral arterial thrombosis.