Correlation between spinal cord blood flow and arterial diameter following acute spinal cord injury in rats.

Simultaneous measurements of spinal cord blood flow and arterial diameter at areas adjacent to a site of spinal cord injury were carried out to determine changes in CO(2) reactivity and autoregulation. The spinal cord injury was made at T10 level by the epidural clip compression method. A spinal window was drilled at an area either 7 mm caudal or 7 mm rostral to the injury site for the measurement of spinal cord blood flow and arterial diameter at the same time. Spinal cord blood flow was decreased at both spinal windows, especially at the rostral window. Arterial diameter was also decreased significantly at both sites. The ischaemic zone evaluated histologically tended to expand more diffusely in the rostral direction than in the caudal direction. In the pre-injury stage, both CO(2) reactivity and autoregulation were present in the spinal cord. Following the clip injury, CO(2) reactivity and autoregulation were both impaired in the areas 7 mm adjacent to the impact site. Correlation coefficients suggested that the rostral spinal cord tended to sustain more injury than the caudal spinal cord. The histologically proven spinal cord ischaemia following the injury may have resulted from the decreased arterial diameter and impaired CO(2) reactivity and dysautoregulation of the spinal cord.