The effects of chronic alcoholism on development of ischemic cerebral infarcts following unilateral carotid artery ligation in gerbils.

To test if chronic alcoholism potentiates mortality and accentuates cerebral infarcts associated with ischemia, 32 male and 33 female Mongolian gerbils were chronically fed ethanol in their diet for 6 weeks. Cerebral ischemia was then induced by ligation and sectioning of the right common carotid artery. Postoperatively, there was a mean difference in survival in the control versus the alcoholic gerbils. Whereas 76% of controls survived the operation, only 55% of alcoholic gerbils survived. Also, the alcoholic gerbils died earlier, usually in the initial 3 postoperation days. The incidence of cerebral infarcts was identical (52%) in both control and alcohol-treated gerbils. There was, however, a difference in the extent (size) of the infarcts and tolerance to them. The alcoholic gerbils tended to develop either large infarcts which were usually lethal, or smaller infarcts but with decreased tolerance. The cerebral infarcts in the controls tended to be smaller with better survival. These findings suggest that chronic alcohol consumption contributes significantly to the risk of mortality associated with ischemic brain infarction reported in human alcoholics, and indicate that the alcoholic gerbil is a good experimental model to study the pathophysiology of this phenomenon.