Cerebral arterial spasm

Abstract

In vitro experiments were performed with a small volume chamber to determine the contractile activity of various vasoactive agents on human basilar and anterior cerebral arteries. Cumulative log-dose response curves were obtained for most of the agents tested including serotonin and 3 different prostaglandins; many of these curves were similar to curves previously obtained with canine cerebral arteries. Canine cerebral arteries are a good in vitro model for studying human cerebral arterial spasm. Human CSF, collected up to 17 days after a subarachnoid hemorrhage from patients with clinical and angiographic evidence of cerebral arterial spasm, would cause large, dose-dependent contractions in human anterior cerebral arteries.