Techniques and results of neuroradiologic investigations of experimentally induced brain tumors in rats.

In two comparable groups of 12 adult rats at a time, the normal anatomy of the cerebral arteries and the pathologic vascular pattern of experimentally induced brain tumors was investigated angiographically. These tumors were malignant mixed gliomas which were inoculated by percutaneous puncture through the vault with a suspension of 10,000 tumor cells. The neuroradiologic examinations consisted of selective angiographies of the internal carotid artery in vivo, postmortem radiographies of cerebrovascular casts of isolated brains as well as of microangiographic and comparative histologic investigations of the tumor. The juxtaventricular localization and the extension of the tumors in the basal ganglia could be angiographically demonstrated approximately 3 to 4 weeks after the implantation of the tumor cells. Moreover, qualitative and quantitative vascular criteria of malignancy could be shown microangiographically which correlated well with the histologic findings. The effects of several therapeutic procedures such as radiotherapy, pharmacoangiography and various techniques of embolization are being studied with this experimental tumor model in order to explore the prerequisites for appropriate treatment of cerebral lesions in man.