The impact of transcranial direct current stimulation on cerebral vasospasm in a rat model of subarachnoid hemorrhage

Abstract

Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) has been shown to induce changes in cortical excitability and perfusion in a rat ischemic stroke model. Since perfusion disturbances are a common phenomenon, not only in ischemic but also in hemorrhagic stroke, tDCS might have a possible beneficial effect on cerebral perfusion in hemorrhagic stroke as well. We applied tDCS in a rat model of subarachnoid hemorrhage (SAH) and evaluated its impact on vasospasm. SAH was induced using the double-hemorrhage rat model. TDCS was applied on day 3 and 4. For vasospasm assessment magnetic resonance angiography was performed on day 1, day 2 and day 5. A total of 147 rats were operated, whereat 72 rats died before day 5 and 75 rats survived the whole experiment and could be analyzed. The cathodal group consisted of 26 rats, the anodal group included 24 rats. Thirteen rats served as controls without tDCS, and twelve rats underwent a sham operation. The cathodal group revealed the lowest incidence of new vasospasm on day 5 ( p = 0.01), and the lowest mean number of vasospastic vessels per rat ( p = 0.02). TDCS influences the vasospasm incidence in an SAH-model in rats, where cathodal-tDCS was associated with a lower vasospasm incidence and severity.

Neurocognitive Sequelae and Rehabilitation after Subarachnoid Hemorrhage: Optimizing Outcomes

“…In a rodent study, tDCS therapy implemented 3 and 4 days post-SAH reduced the frequency and severity of vasospasm. This encouraging finding suggests that stimulatory therapy may provide further therapeutic benefit to patients recovering from SAH and could be recommended in addition to pharmacological therapy to prevent complications such as vasospasm post-SAH [88].…”

The Updated Role of Transcranial Ultrasound Neuromodulation in Ischemic Stroke: From Clinical and Basic Research

“…The disadvantage of TMS is the lack of good spatial resolution, which results in limitations in the application of neural rehabilitation (Dionísio et al, 2018;Krogh et al, 2021;Liu et al, 2021a). The characteristics of high penetration and high spatial resolution of TUS have shown therapeutic potential in stroke treatment (Guo et al, 2015;Li et al, 2017;Liu et al, 2019;Wu et al, 2020;Malinova et al, 2021). Transcranial ultrasound is roughly divided into two types based on frequency: one is diagnostic transcranial ultrasound, with a frequency of 1.0-15 MHz, whereas the other is transcranial aggregation ultrasound, with a frequency lower than 1.0 MHz (Yang et al, 2008;Deng et al, 2021).…”