High-speed angiography of experimental head injury

Abstract

✓ Cineangiograms were performed at 1000 frames/sec in anesthetized rhesus monkeys during 4 meters/sec impact head injuries. Impacts that did not fracture the skull resulted in rapid transient movements of intracranial arteries. Lateral blows distorted the ipsilateral middle cerebral artery and reversibly displaced the anterior cerebral artery across the midline. Occipital blows distorted the peripheral branches of the middle and posterior cerebral arteries, and produced marked stretching of extracranial vessels. These data indicate that most of the intracranial movements hypothesized as etiological in brain injury occur in the first milliseconds following trauma. This technique makes possible quantitative measurement of these intracranial events and so may aid in the understanding of brain injury.