Transient appearance of "no-reflow" phenomenon in Mongolian gerbils.

We investigated the existence of the "no-reflow" phenomenon in focal cerebral ischemia. Regional cerebral blood flow was studied in Mongolian gerbils perfused with a carbon-black particle suspension after cerebral ischemia prior to decapitation and compared with 14C-antipyrine autoradiographic images. The correlation between the occurrence of the "no-reflow" phenomenon and systemic arterial blood pressure change was also examined. We found that the phenomenon was transient in character and that its manifestation was related to the transient fall in arterial blood pressure observed immediately after clip release and with stagnation of venous blood flow. The phenomenon disappeared in animals in which the arterial blood pressure was artificially increased after clip release.