Brain and behavior
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Transcranial Doppler ultrasonography (TCD) is a clinical tool for stratifying ischemic stroke risk by identifying abnormal elevations in blood flow velocity (BFV) in the middle cerebral artery (MCA). However, TCD is not effective at screening for subtle neurologic injury such as silent cerebral infarcts. To better understand this disparity, we compared TCD measures of BFV with tissue-level cerebral blood flow (CBF) using arterial spin-labeling MRI in children with and without sickle cell disease, and correlated these measurements against clinical hematologic measures of disease severity. ⋯ This study demonstrates that BFV in the MCA cannot be used as a surrogate marker for tissue-level CBF in children with sickle cell disease. Therefore, TCD alone may not be sufficient for understanding and predicting subtle pathophysiology in this population, highlighting the potential clinical value of tissue-level CBF.
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Traumatic brain injury (TBI) remains a leading cause of disability and death among young people in China. Unfortunately, no specific pharmacological agents to block the progression of secondary brain injury have been approved for clinical treatment. Recently, neuroprotective effects of erythropoietin (EPO) have been demonstrated in addition to its principal function in erythropoiesis, and hence it is viewed as a potential drug for TBI. In this study, we have investigated the neuroprotective effects of EPO associated with immune/inflammatory modulation in a mouse experimental TBI model. ⋯ These findings suggest that EPO could improve neurological and cognitive functional outcomes as well as regulate immune/inflammatory reaction in TBI.