Neurocritical care
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Hypertonic saline (HS) can treat cerebral edema arising from a number of pathologic conditions. However, physicians are reluctant to use it during the first 24 h after stroke because of experimental evidence that it increases infarct volume when administered early after reperfusion. Here, we determined the effect of HS on infarct size in an embolic clot model without planned reperfusion. ⋯ HS reduced contralateral hemispheric water content but did not affect ipsilateral brain water content when compared to NS. Infarct volume was unaffected by HS administration at all evaluated locations.
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Aneurysmal subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) has a poor outcome, particularly attributed to progressive injury after the initial incident. Several studies suggest a critical role for inflammation in lesion progression after SAH. Our goal was to test whether treatment with anti-inflammatory interferon-β, which has shown promise as a therapeutic agent in experimental ischaemic stroke, can protect the brain after SAH. ⋯ In contrast to previously published findings in experimental ischemic stroke models, interferon-β has no clear efficacy to protect the brain after SAH. In line with recent highlighting of the significance of negative findings, our data currently do not recommend clinical testing of interferon-β to prevent neurological damage in SAH patients.