Extracorporeal cephalic blood autoperfusion method in the rat. Hemorrheological evaluation and proposed pharmacological uses.

We propose a constant cephalic blood perfusion method especially suitable to the rat. Cerebrovascular blood pressure is artificially regulated by an extracorporeal circuit with a perfusion pump and a Starling valve. A hemorrheological evaluation allows one to demonstrate an extracorporeal circuit that shows a growing pathological evolution, which can be purposely accelerated by iterative ischemic episodes. This method can be used (as shown by some examples) as a model for cerebrovascular failure or to study deleterious effects of the extracorporeal circuit.